Other Worlds
by njking24
Summary: Obito casts Naruto into another while both are on the thin line between life and death. In a new world where his family's alive and thriving, and one in which he feels and knows he doesn't belong, Naurto strives to fit in, all the while seeking a way back to his home. Yet, each world holds its perils, and Naruto slowly comes to realize home isn't quite where he thought it was.
1. Chapter 1

**A nice little story I wanted to write. It's been on my mind for a bit and I finally had to do it. In it Naruto gets cast into another world by Obito. Read to find out more. **

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His skin burned like an inferno, it stung like a million needles each digging forcefully into his chest. The pain, the pain was excruciating. An unfathomable racking pain that surged its way into the depths of his soul, that seared its way into his memory in such a manner that he knew he would _never _forget. His eyes trailed weakly to his opponent, the man in was in just as bad, if not a worse state as himself.

He laughed, for the briefest of moments his cracked and broken voice rasping out.

"Never…never have I ever hated someone." The nature of the words startled him, the honesty in those words…

"You…" Obito rasped out in response. The man laid on the floor, his mismatched eyes watching the blond with daft attention. He tried to move, to will his body to act; nothing, his body wouldn't obey, he couldn't move. "How will you do that when you can't move? When you're as ruined as me. Don't you see….this world…it's doomed. What happens when you die, when I'm gone?"

"I'll kill,_ no. _I'll erase you from this world. Wipe every trace of you from existence."

"I'll tell you what will happen _boy!_ Death, destruction. Domination and oppression, madness….There are no longer nine Bijju. Just the Jubbi and two Jinchuriki…What do you think will happen when you die? When the nations realize that there's now just one monster. One beast who could allow them to dominate their neighbors? _Death!"_

Slowly Naruto struggled to his feet, he screamed in torment. His wound gushing open and spilling the red ichor of his blood onto the floor. Fierce blue eyes gazed about the battle field.

_Death._

All this death. All because of one man. He moved, each step a practice in absolute torment. A momentary act in pure absolute _Pain._ Red tinted blond hair swayed in the wind. Blue eyes, rich pools of cobalt locked on Naruto.

"You know nothing. These people fought to stop you, they fought…for a reason. To protect those they loved."

"They fought because they had no other option. Because the enemy of their enemy was their friend. When I'm gone- the enemy that hold their attention- when you're gone," Obito laughed his voice a thick coarse sound, he stopped as a thick bloody cough racked his chest. "They'll have no hero, no one to hold their feeble alliance together. They'll fall on each other like wolves. The weak will fall, and the strong will become the oppressors and monsters they always wish they could be."

"You keep on acting like I'm going somewhere…."

All Naruto got in response was another bloody laugh.

"I'm the one standing."

Another laugh. This one more maniacal than the last. Obito's sharigan twisted, his stolen rinnnengan blared. The skies twisted open, buckled beneath the weight of the world. Before Naruto could act his world went black.

"I may die, but _this _world, _this world _will never see you again."

xxx-xxx-xxx-another world-xxx-xx-xxx

"So what about the kid?" Namikaze Minato asked happily. A smile adoring the blond man's face. His blue eyes watching the masked ANBU.

"His condition has stabilized Hokag-sama. His wounds are healed, and it appears he has an accelerated healing factor due to the short amount of time it took him to recover. His chakra stores are still recovering though we are keeping a tight watch over how well developed his system is."

"And what about what he had on him? The guy seemed to have to pretty neat seals on him. I mean, he had storage seals _on _his body from what you've told me." Minato happily asked. The blond seemed to stay in a perpetually upbeat mood. A wide grin staying on his face the entirety of the time he talked.

"The method behind his security seals still allude us. He seems to have bound to seal to open his belonging with one of them on his body. As for the other items we found on his body. They've all been scrutinized to the best of our ability. They are of Konohagakagaru origin. The seal beneath his tag is in correlation with what we use for our jounin ninja. We ran his Ninja id against our database and discovered nothing…"The ANBU hesitated,

Minato laughed. "Well go on! You don't have to hide things from me, besides I'm not one for waiting."

"We…we did the tests you asked Hokage sama. He is indeed Uzumaki…though, the results were surprising. A fifty percent match to your wife, though the match to your daughters is what has us the most…confused, if you will, is the match to your daughter. A nearly fifty percent match with them as well. We then tested with you, and once again a fifty percent match."

Minato frowned. His carefree attitude disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. "Quite curious. I want limiters and restrictors placed on him immediately, move him to T&I. Place him in one of our nicer rooms. Double the guards," he stopped for a moment his face taking on a look of deepened concentration for the slightest of moments. "I want cell three on this."

"Excuse me Hokage-sama…but an entire cell?"

"Do you think it's a bit of overkill?"

"An entire cell is a bit too much Hokage-sama."

The man's mood lightened instantly. "The brat's pretty interesting you know? The blood test probably explains why he looks so much like me. Hmm….I wonder how Kushina will react to this. Still if an entire cell is overkill have a couple from cell three set to watch him and a couple from cell five just in case."

"Knowing Kushina-sama, well I cannot predict how she would take the news. She and your daughters are like the wind. Never taking the same path twice Hokage-sama."

Minato Laughed, his voice deepening as he did so. "That's one way to describe my girls. That's all Iruka, why don't you retu to-"

A pulse of Chakra raced its way through the Hokage tower. Minato acted instantly, disappearing into a yellow flash, and reappearing in the Konoha General Hospital. He disappeared in a blur, and a moment later he found himself in the room of the boy they had found just a few short weeks before.

Three ANBU gourds surrounded the boy. Two more lay across the room, unconscious and unmoving. The teen's sharp blue eyes watched with vapid attention. His eyes landed on him, and the teen froze. The room was still and silent. The tension could be cut with a knife.

"Let's all calm down alright?"

The boy's arm quickly switched into a one handed hand sign. His chakra grew monstrously for the briefest of seconds.

"Kai!," then it pulsed out. Lashing suddenly like a whip and slamming all the ANBU and the blond Kage with enough force to slap them into a wall. Minato braced against the lash out of chakra and stood his ground. There was more chakra in that last pulse than all the men currently in the room had in their bodies.

"Kai!" Another monstrous pulse of chakra.

"Kai!"

"Ka-"

Minato was behind the boy now. His blade press peculiarly to one of his kidneys, an arm sufficiently suffocating his throat.

"How about you calm down?"

Silence was his response from the boy.

"Look, I know you've got some questions. But you're not the only one, you know that right. You surprised us with your sudden appearance. I'd like to hear the story behind it." The man happily stated, seemingly uncaring of the sudden danger he posed not only to the blond.

"How are you…you shouldn't be…"

"You've got questions, that's good." Minato cast a friendly smile towards the blond. "We've got some question too so why don't we all just sit down, and talk this out?"

"O..okay."

xxx-xxx-xxxx-Other Worlds-xxx-xxxx-xxx

Naruto frowned as he appraised his surroundings. Pale grey concrete walls easily a foot thick on each side, probably lined with the toughest steel they could find. No windows, just one massive seal on one of the walls that allowed people in and out of the interrogation room. His hands were forcibly bound to a chair that he could feel suppress his chakra. He allowed a frown to twist itself onto his face as he observed the other blond in the room.

He was still in a hospital gown, and he could feel the cold wood of the bench caressing his nether regions.

"You know when you said we'd talk about this, I didn't think we'd be doing it like this."

Minato laughed. Naruto couldn't help but to note the man seemed to carry the same aloof attitude his one eyed sensei had once also held, though his disposition seemed to be far lighter hearted.

"Well what did you expect Naruto-kun?"

"I don't know…not this I can tell you. Not this at all."

Minato's voice seemed to carry a perpetually chipper pitch to it, as if to him everything was amusing.

"To be quite honest were being far more than lenient. Those seals aren't at full strength, you're not bound nearly as tight as you should be, and at least we let you keep the gown. Many a man, have been tortured completely naked on that chair."

For a moment Naruto turned green at the thought.

"Can I get some pants…please?" Naruto whined almost childishly.

"Nope!" Once again the man answered. His response just as chipper as always. "That dangerious." The older blond giggled at his own comment. "Now why don't we get started Naruto-kun. Tell me your story."

Naruto sighed in both restlessness and anxiousness. The man before him was his hero, his idol, his father. He'd only met the man once before in his life and that had been only for the briefest of moments, and even then it hadn't _really_ been the man. Just a memory of a memory placed to keep the seal in check.

"My Name is Uzumaki Naruto, I was born on the tenth of October, wh-"

"Quite interesting, that's also my Daughter's birthday."

Naruto glared at the man for the interruption.

"Sorry about that." The fourth laughed out. His hands rubbing the back of his head as he let out a sheepish grin.

"When I was born the Kyuubi attacked. My mother had been the previous Jinchuriki, My father the Hokage." His eyes leveled at the man. Blue staring into blue as silence reigned throughout the room. "When my mother was giving birth a masked man attacked her, he released the Kyuubi, and started to control it. My father had seen anticipated the possibility of the Kyuubi trying to break free, but not that someone would free him. My father attacked the masked man, they fought, and just briefly my father defeated the man. By the time my father defeated him it was too late, the Kyuubi had been summoned, and was already attacking the village. My mother and father drew it away, me in my mother's arms. They decided to seal the Bijju away, to use a seal of the highest order to assure it would't be seeing the world for years to come. The Shiki Fujin, my father sacrificed his soul to seal the beast away, and my mother her life to hold it off until he could. They died and sealed it-the Kyuubi- into me."

"Can I see your seal?" Minato was suddenly deathly serious. The humor was gone from his voice, like a switch in the mans mind had been flipped. Naruto nodded at the request undoing the top of his hospital gown and allowing his upper torso to show. Minato stared intently at the seal. His hand started tracing the intricate line.

"It's solid, stable, and still functions as it should. Tell me can you still feel the demon in you?"

"Without a doubt Kurama's still in me. He's probably sleeping off whatever happened to us, me?" He drawled out slowly, the end of his statement trailing into a question.

"Kurama?"

"The fox's name."

"I wasn't aware he had one." Minato replied. His tone once more overly enthusiastic. As if just moments before he hadn't been gravely serious. Naruto raised an eye brow at the sudden mood shifts, but the other blond simply ignored it.

"Continue."

"I wasn't liked when I was growing up, I didn't have any friends, and when the villagers didn't openly despise me they ignored me. I hated it, I hated being alone, being ignored. I desperately wanted to fit in In, to have someone, anyone notice me. So I played pranks, because when I played pranks _everyone _noticed me. I wasn't serious in school, I skipped a lot, and didn't pay attention, and ignored the teacher when they thought things."

Minato's happy demeanor faded as the boy spoke.

And Naruto continued to speak.

xx-xxx-xxx-Other Worlds-xxx-xx-xxx

Namikaze Minato was wracked with worry. His face conveying the emotional turmoil that was racing his way through his mind. He'd failed his son. Sure his wife hadn't birthed the boy, and sure it wasn't _him_ that had sealed the demon away, but _he_ had come close. _He _had just been moments away from sentencing his daughter to the same fate, just moments away from sentencing his daughter to a life of misery, of pain, of torture and torment for years.

_But then Sabutori-sama had stepped in. _

The third had sacrificed his life, and by doing so had allowed his wife and himself to live. Allowed his Daughter to have a safe, wonderful home, a caring family, a village that adored her. Allowed them to give birth to a second daughter that brought even more love to his family.

Yet this other _him, _this other version of himself had sentenced a child to a burden no one should have to bare. Minato let out a deep sigh. The boy was so much like him and Kushina, he held his coloring, yet Kushina's personality. His drive to succeed, and Kushina hard headedness. The boy had never grown up with parents, and the closest he had come had been teachers that had flitted in and out of his life sporadically. The closest he had to brothers and sister were friends, friends who like his teacher had flitted in and out of his life, and in the end, all had died leaving the boy with nothing.

A though life, for what was still very much a child. It would seem the ninja world, no matter what world, was cruel.

He had failed a child, failed his son and now….now what was he going to do about it?

Perhaps his wife would know what to do, Kushina was always intuitive about complex situations like these. The woman seemed to be able to see simple, reason able solution to even the most complex of social situations. His hand flicked briefly with a simple sign, and an anbu landed before him.

"Hokage-sama, you called?"

"Call my wife for me…only if she's not busy of course…the last thing want is her being pissed at me and taking it out on you, that woman can be terrifying in her fits of rage."

"Of course Hokage-sama."

The ANBU disappeared in a poof of thick chakra smoke, and a few minutes later a red haired woman entered the room. Her face was twisted into a look of annoyance, and the hair slightly parting at he anger. For a moment Minato wondered if it was worth calling his wife was worth the pain he was more than likely to receive in a few moments.

"Kushina-chan!" A smile plastered on his face. His wife's reaction was luke warm.

"Minato….what have I told you about sending your minions to fetch me? I'm not some pet you know, I remember the la-"

"Kushina-chan, please, I called you for a very important reason. Some events have occurred and now…well know I don't know what to do, you seem to know how to handle things like these…."

He slid a scroll on his desk over to his wife. She opened it up, and silence fell upon the two of them as she read. A scowl of annoyance slowly morphed into a frown of worry.

"Minato…"

"You can see why I called you. I don't know how to handle this…how to handle him. I thought you might be able to help."

"This is a whole lot to take in I mean…"

"Yeah…"

"Another world, were dead…"

"Kushina…I, I don't know what to do. I need your help."

The woman stopped at her husband's words, her mind wandering as he spoke. She had a son, even if she hadn't birthed him, _she had birthed him_. She'd birthed him, and some version of herself had died saving him. Sacrificing herself for her child, and she understood the concept…the _idea _that no matter what, as long as her child survived she'd be happy but after reading the report; she frowned in concentration. What to do with the boy, no-she corrected herself- he was a man for no one went through what he did without growing very quickly. What was she to do with him?

_He's family. _

He'd grown without parents, spend his entire life without a true family, would he accept an offer to join their small family, and if he did...then what?

What was she to do if he did accept? From what she could read the boy was well over nineteen now. More than three years older than even her eldest. He was a _man, _he'd had a fiancé, been next in line to be a Kage; he was already in the troughs of adulthood. She couldn't baby him…couldn't treat him like a child, for that was all she knew how to treat her children.

Kushina's frown twisted into a frown. She shouldn't be doubting himself so much. She'd extend the olive branch, and run happily with the consequences.

"Invite him to dinner three days from now. Naruko and Mito will be home from their missions by then. I want to explain this to them, parts of it at least. We'll over him the option to join the family…I mean, he's one of us, and the Namikaze and Uzimake take care of their own. If he accepts well run with it, and cross any bridges when they appear."

Minato smiled. He trusted his wife.

"Oh, and Minato, the next time you send one of your silly little minions to fetch me," the room temperature suddenly dropped. "Ill castrate you. We don't have all those Hirashin seals in the house just for you to not use them. I'm not one of our children. Understood?"

The Kage cowed under the righteous anger of his wife.

"Yes dear."

xxx-xxx-xxx-other worlds-xxx-xxx-xxx

**Chapter one done? Huh. Well this chapter is on the shorter end of the spectrum for what you should expect from this story. This one comes in at just over 3k words. This story and my other one **_**Drive **_**are the two main story's I'll be focusing my attention on. Farmer Naruto is on indefinite Haitus, if not dead. Oh well. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Another chapter! As always read and review. tell me your opinions, and please do reveiw. I actually read all reviws that i recieve. And I noticed some valid Arguements. Arguements which i help adress with this chapter. See if you can spot em. **

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Naruto frowned as he observed his surroundings. He'd been here for three days. Three arduous days of test, question and invasive mind walks. Three days in which his privacy had been invaded, in which he had been prodded, poked. Three days in which his bare ass had been pressed into the cold wood of a seat he was far too aware that many other bare asses had also been pressed into. So when Minato entered the room with a familiar hue of orange pants, with his green and white boxer in the other Naruto couldn't help but to let out a sigh of relief.

"I bring gifts!" The blond Kage exclaimed as he poofed into the room.

Naruto sent a blank emotionless look towards the man. His exuberance was far from what Naruto wished for, especially while his ass was pressing into this seat. The sheer nature of cold bench on his cheeks, the numbing sting from three days of sitting, the subtle stench of ass-not his but the multitude of others that they seemed incapable of getting out of the bench-made the man's happy demeanors completely out of place.

"My pants, and my boxers aren't exactly what I'd call a gift."

"In the eyes of the beholder and all that." The man tossed the clothes towards him. "Get dressed, I'm busting you out of the huscow."

"It's not busting me out if you put me there in the first place."

The man laughed at the other blonde's monotonous voice. Naruto stood up and slipped on his boxers, ruffling the paper like fabric of the hospital gown he wore. His bare ass no longer exposed for the world to see Naruto took off the hospital gown. He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, grabbed his pants from the floor and slid those on too.

"My shirt?"

"I got you a new one. It's in my office. Your old one was torn to shreds, and I don't think we would have been able to get out all the blood stains. We barely managed to clean that one up so you're getting a new shirt."

Naruto smiled at the man's kind words, a wide toothed gin finding its way on his usually solemn face. He stepped towards the door, the wide muscles of his chest rippling as he stepped forward. Minato wrapped a hand around his shoulder, and the two reappeared in the man's office with a flash of light.

Naruto took a moment to look around. It was sparse, a simple desk made from old Konoha oak, a wooden chair with wheels for quick movement while seated. On the desk were an assortment of scrolls stacked in a neat triangular shape. Next to the scrolls was a tray marked as "out" and another marked as "in."

Behind the desk lay a row of pictures. The first was a man and an obviously pregent woman-his mother- her hair a red, rich hue that glistened in the light of the late evening sun.

A black shirt suddenly slammed into his face. "Come on, my wife's waiting to meet you. You know, she was really excited to meet you."

"Is she?"

"Yes." Minato smiled at him I response. "But first let's sit down and talk a bit. You told me your story, but you haven't told me about yourself, lets talk, man to man."

Naruto took a seat, and the two blue eyed men stared at one another from their respective positions.

"I'm sure you got everything you could ever want from the mind walks."

"I did, but that doesn't mean I don't want to talk with you." This time Minato's response came out slightly strained.

Naruto sighed a deep sigh. His mind wandered, and he started to dwell on his own thoughts. _This_ world wasn't his world. This Konoha was not his Konoha. The man before him, and his wife were not his mother and father, any yet..

_I can't help but to wonder._

What would this world hold? What could it offer to someone who had lost everyone he held dear and now, essentially, had nothing left? A family? What of family, what did he truly seek in that? He was an adult now, he'd been planning a family, expecting a child, fighting desperately to end a war that had gone one a little too long, and had cost far too many lives.

_I'm probably stuck here for the rest of my life. _

And he likely was, he didn't know how Obito had managed to send him here, wherever _here _was. So, why not make friends?

"Fine," he relented. "What do you want to know about me?"

"Well, you said you had a fiancé, want to talk about her."

_Beautiful eyes, hair as smooth as silk. A voice like a thousand bells all chiming together and singing in his ear. _

"I don't want to talk about that, can we move on to another subject?"

"Okay, how about something less personal? What do like to eat?"

Naruto smiled at the man. "Ramen."

"Miso your favorite?"

Naruto smiled at the man. Ramen was the food of the gods, its taste transcending all borders, all creeds. "There's no other flavor that even comes close in my honest opinion."

"Favorite color?"

"Orange."

"Orange?"

"Whats wrong with orage?"

Minato voice switched to one of sarcastic condescension. "Nothing, nothing at all."

Nauto's face morphed into a look of fake offence. They laughed at their own idiosyncrasy and fell into a comfortable silence. Pools of blue, blue eyes, mirrored one another.

"How about you tell me something about yourself Minato, tell me about your family."

"My family is wonderful. Mito graduates from the academy in a few months, and Naruko is well on the fast track to Jounin, and she's a special-Jounin. She's sweet, and I'm sure you three will get along wonderfully. Kushina…well. Kushina's as fiery as ever, she's a sweet woman, but easy to anger. She's loving and kind and sweet. A wonderful mother, though, and a passable cook." He laughed at his wifes expense. "Don't let her know I told you that last part though. She'd beat me senseless if she found out."

Both men chuckled as they settled into one another's company. Then, with a slight displacement of wind, an ANBU dropped between both men.

"Hokage-sama, Kushina-sama calls for you." The ANBU arched a brow at both men, taking immediate notice of the similarities between both men. "Both of you, she wants you two home now. Both your children are home and she stressed the speed of your arrival."

xxx-xx-xxx-xxx

Kushina Uzumaki was not one prone to nervousness. She was hard headed, strong, in fact she was one of the most powerful Kunoichi in the elemental nations-as was expected of the wife of the yellow flash-and even stronger willed. Her rage was infamous, and her personality nearly indomitable, she _shouldn't _have be nervous.

Yet, she was.

She let out a long winded sigh, and cast a look towards her daughters. Her youngest, Mito, was a strange hybrid of herself and minito. In a way she was her fathers daughter in the way of looks. Bright sunshine yellow hair, with streaks of orange and red. Big sea blue eyes, that glistened in the light of the evening sun. Yet, behind those eyes, hid the mischievous nature of the Uzumaki,the restlessness of a clan that at one time had dedicated nearly its entire existence to discovering the secrets of fuuinjutsu.

She frowned at her daughter. Those slightly upturned lips, the shifting eyes, the barely suppressed giggles...

"Mito, i want you on your best behavior. No pranks, Naruto-kun has had a tough time during these past few days, the last thing he'll need is to worry about you messing with him every time he's no paying attention."

Her daughter puted in response. A frown blossoming on her pink lips. Her tanned face, yet another aspect of her father she had inherited, showing her displeasure.

"Kaa-chan, you're no fun. What's the point of a new Oniisan if i can't play some pranks on him?"

She frowned at her daughters childish question. "Naruto-kun has had a tough time, he's a war veteran where he comes from, and a very powerful one at that. I'm sure you know the rules about war veterans?"

Her daughter pouted in a way all too familiar to her husband. "War veterans, especially fresh ones, are always on edge, always ready to strike. Something seamlessly harmless to us could be a threat to them. Don't startle em, cause you could loose and arm at best, and at worst your life." Her voice was monotone and robotic. Once again Kushina let out a sigh at her daughter's antics.

She was living in a house filled with children, her daughters, and man-child of a husband included.

"Kaa-chan, I'm home."

"Did you get the sake?" Kushina asked as she turned to face her eldest daughter. If Mito was her fathers daughter, then Naruko was _her _daugher. Naruko held her face, her smile, her coloring, even the same striking blue gray eyes she held.

"Yeah, I got the sake, gonna be boozing it up with Tou-san, and our new 'Oniisan?'," yet much like Mito she carried her father's personality.

"Set up the tables," she ordered. "Your father and Naruto-san will be here, soon. I sent one of his cronies to-"

There was a yellow flash, and suddenly her husband was interjecting himself into her conversation mid sentence. "Kushina-chan you know they don't like it when you call them that." He semi-pouted as he spoke. His usually cheerful demeanor replaced suddenly by false pout, and a look of abject depression.

" Stop being such a man child." She turned her attention from her husband to Naruto.

Her breath caught in her chest. She'd always wondered what it would have been like if she'd had a son. What he would look like, how he would act. What he'd do, and who he'd become as he grew. And while she absolutely, and without a doubt loved her two daughters, while she wouldn't trade him for the world, _she'd always wondered._

_What if i had a son?_

Now, the closest thing she'd ever come to that was standing before her. He looked like minato. The same golden locks, the same deep, blue, blue eyes that her husband held. Three whisker like marks on each cheek, much like both her daughters. He smiled weakly at her, and she recognized the smile almost immediately.

_It was her smile. _

The same smile that both her Daughters held. She was speechless, but it didn't matter because he spoke for her.

_Then she realized his smile was sad._

Sure she'd seen his photo, but now, here in this moment, she realized the weight of it all. The boy, no-she corrected herself-the man before her, had lived a life, one in which she hadn't been there. A world where she hadn't been there, and a child had turned into a man, due to sheer necessity. A world where that man, had lost everything, and still had stood firm against his hardships, and his defeats. A world, where he had sacrificed everything, and now, all that was gone.

"Hello." His voice was smooth deep baritone. It reminded her of her father. "Is that miso I smell? I love miso."

She couldn't help but to smile at the blond. She moved forward, not fast enough to startle him, but quick enough for him to not avoid it, and hugged him.

"Yeah, that's miso. Want some?"

xxx-xxx-xxxx

Dinner was a quiet and happy affair. The talk was casual, and the Uzumaki-Namikaze family fell into a comfortable silence. Mito was the first to speak after all had become quite.

"Naruto, do you know any cool Jutsu?"

Blue eyes centered on yellow red hair. The man laughed at the girls words. "I know some."

"Like what?"

"Well..." The he turned his eyes to Kushina, and Minato, and it took them a second to understand the unsaid message he wanted to convey. He was asking their permission to tell her about his techniques. They, simultaneously, sent a subtle nod the boys way. "Like the rasengan."

The girl seemed to pout at the blonds words. "I already know about the rasengan. Tou-chan, and Kaa-chan, have already shown it to me."

The blond brought up his hand and a spiraling blue ball instantly formed. Suddenly it disappeared, the blue ball dissipating noiselessly this time to be replaced with a green one. "This is a futon version to the rasengan."

Minato spoke up "You completed it? On your own? It took years to complete the rasengan." The man seemed to be pouting once more.

"I did more than complete it." Naruto laughed at Minato's pout. "I'll show you when you finally remove all those restricting seals from me."

"A few more days, i have to work some things out first, forge some documents, speak with sensei."

"Awesome! Do you know any other ones?" Mito asked excitedly, a childlike glow in her eyes.

Naruto held up his hand. The green ball of death dissipating. The air around Naruto's hand seemed to shimmer with slightly deflected light. "This is another fuuton-jutsu. I made this one."

"What does it do, and what's it called?"

"I don't have a name for it, not yet. And what it does it, well,, imagine, a million little blades. All of them ripping and shredding and tearing away at you."

"Awesome!"

Naruto smiled at the enthusiastic response from the small teen.

"Can you teach it to me?"

"Its not that simple, it requires a mastery of fuuton element very hard to achieve."

"Awe." The girl pouted at the prospect of a jutsu lost.

"It's getting late Mito-chan, why don't you head up to bed. You still have to go to the academy tomorrow."

The girl pouted but did as he mother commanded. " I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow, Naruto-san." She shouted as she headed up the stairs.

With The youngest of them gone the three nin settled into another comfortable silence. Kushina, having grown tired of it, decided to intervene.

"So Naruto-kun, how was your career doing before...well this?"

Naruto's face brightened. A small reserved smile coming to his face. "Yes, I was to be the next Hokage. The village was recovering and things finally seemed like they were settling down." His voice drifted off, and for a moment he found himself in memories.

Light blond hair, and vivid, sky blue eyes shrouded his vision.

"_Naruto-kun, you should be more careful, you're dense skull can't protect you forever." _

"Naruto-kun, are you okay." The voice of the woman, who-he supposed- was his mother called out to him.

"Agh.." He wanted to call her name, and at the same time he wanted to call her Kaa-chan, acknowledge her as the woman who birthed him. Yet, she wasn't, she hadn't, and he felt far too old, far too grown, to call anyone his mother. "Yes, just...remembering."

"Do you wish to speak about it?" He could hear the concern in her voice. It soothed him a bit.

"No, no, I- I'm okay. Why doesn't Naruko talk a bit. I'd like to see, what I've been up too." He chuckled at his own joke, as he turned to his red haired counterpart. His smile grew as he realized she had the same brutish, and childlike sense of humor he had.

"I've been on the fast track to Jounin since i graduated three years ago. I made chunin in the chunin exams, and special Jounin a year after that. I take the jounin exams in a few months, and thats considered impressive. But considering you were about to be a kage...well i wouldn't mind sparring with you a bit. You think you up for it blondy?"

Naruto smiled at her. _No,_ he beamed at her. His brilliant white teeth poking through normally straight lips, blue eyes boring into her. She was him, before, before everything. Before the war, before he lost HInata, then Sakura, and Sasuke too. Before everything he had dear to him was ripped from his heart, by what could be nothing more than the cruel back hand of fate.

She was him, before he'd lost his innocence. Before he'd realized the world isn't black and white, but one great mire of grey, grey, grey, with only a few lights left to lead the way.

"Yeah, sure, I'd like to see how I'd fare against myself. Though, my chakra is still sealed away." He turned to Minato, his eyes staring, and his message easily visible to all in the room.

_I want out. I want to feel my chakra flowing through my veins. _

"So impatient." Minato said with fiegned anger. "I can't let you out for a bit. We need more scans on you, and we also need to fake your identity. I'm waiting for Jiraiya-sensei. Once he arrives, I can fake an identity for you, and then, I can unseal your chakra." His voice was calm, and somewhat monotone. A stark difference from his usually happy self.

And then like a switch, the perpetually happy man was back.

"It's getting late, do you have a spare room I could use?" Naruto asked, fatigue suddenly hitting him, rushing over him like a wave.

Minato nodded, and stood up to lead the way.

"Follow me, the room's the third door to the left at the end of the hallway." Minato spoke as he lead the other blond to his room.

It was sparse, painted in eggshell white. Only one bed, and a dresser occupied it. There was a window that faced the Hokage monument, more specifically the domineering face of the Shodaime. Outside he could see the falling sun, spot the flicker of turning on as Konoha entered the darkness of the night.

"I hope this suits you? If theres anything you need or want, let me know and i'll get it for you as soon as i can okay?"

"Its more than enough. Thank you for hosting me."

xxxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

_Her touch was like bliss, tiny tendrils of electricity slowly dancing their way across his skin. Her skin soft, inexplicably so, and glowing in the moonlight. Her lips pressed to his, and he felt his body shudder, felt the thrum of electricity speeding it's way through his pine. _

_This woman controlled him in a way he couldn't describe. _

He awoke from the dream in a cold sweat. Blue eyes staring into the blank emptiness of the dark room. He took deep labored breaths. Slowly he forced himself out of bed and into th entrance of the window.

His eyes peered out.

"The sky's different."

The stars he had spent that night under, the stars that had blared brilliantly above when he'd proposed to her, the stars that had been the one constant he had held onto...the stars weren't there.

xxx-xxx-xxxxx

**Sorry for the long update time on this, I was busy. But i managed to finish it. THis chapter comes in at just over 3200 words. Kinda short for me, but please bare with things will be picking up pace pretty soon i promise. As always read and review. **


	3. Chapter 3

**3600+ words for this chapter. This is a good length i'm going to be aiming for for upcoming chapters. My summer has started, so many a chapters shall be storming upon thee. Good for you, and for me? Expect the next chapter in the next few days, by friday at its latest. There is another authors note at the end. I ask that you read it, then review m story while also hitting the like and follow button. Please? Comeon, it takes thirty seconds...**

xxx-xxx-xxx

Naruto stared in silence at the white haired man across from him. His face unmoving in a desperate try to keep his emotions under control. Sure Minato had spoken of the sannin. Sure he had referenced him, and his role in Naruto's eventual incorporation into this world's Konoha. Sure Minato had _spoken_ of Jiraiya. Had talked about the man in a matter of fact way. Had spoken of him as he was.

But in Naruto's mind it had never quite connected. Perhaps he had never allowed himself to connect, maybe he had decided to not dwell on it subconsciously, like he didn't dwell on the deaths of so many of his friends. That Jiraiya was alive, that he _was _in this world,in the sense that he _was _alive, that he _did_ breath, that he _wasn't _dead. That the man that had helped him define himself was still breathing, still moving about.

It twisted Naruto on the inside, rent at his heart, tore at his mind. His teacher was still alive. The man who had seen the small, scared, boy unsure of himself. The man who-after he had lost to Sasuke at the valley of the end- had taken him away, and helped him learn how to be….happy. How to strive for himself, how to stop his relentless need for attention-by showering him with attention, by being the father Naruto had never had. The man, who, when he had found out Naruto could barely read-instead of laughing and mocking- had thought with earnest and pride, and anger at those who hadn't noticed and taken action earlier.

The man whose death had made Naruto strive for greater and greater heights of strength, of power. The first person to die for Naruto.

In that moment he saw Jiraiya, the white haired perverted giant of a man he was, Naruto felt turmoil rage in his heart, and a second after that he wished the man dead again. To go away and leave him alone. He wished himself back in his world where the dead were _dead._ Then he felt shame, a great washing wave of shame for even thinking of wishing that on Jiraiya. For wishing Jiraiya, any form of the man, any shape of his teacher, dead.

All of this happened of course, with Naruto's face impassive. A blank slate to hide how he felt. Jairay stood in front of him, his face grim, he eyes staring up, into Naruto's own. The staring up thing, Naruto noted, was new. In his world Jiraiya, had towered over everyone. His height of six foot five letting him act as a mountain over other. This Jiraiya was just as tall, which meant Naruto was taller than him.

He was taller than Jiraiya.

He laughed, and to his surprise and delight so did Jiraiya, though not for the same reason.

"What's so funny/" It was Naruko who spoke. Her voice carrying confusion, and anger at being left out of some unsaid joke.

"I'm laughing because I'm actually taller than the pervert. When I was you, he used to joke that I'd stay a shrimp forever. Now I've got at least a decent two inches on him."

Jairay huffed, stopping his own laughter. "Hey, I'm not a pervert. Im-"

Naruto smiled. Basking in the words as he spoke, before finishing his sentence for him. "A super pervert."

"Yes! Someone who understands me!"

Naruto chuckled, his smile widening at the man's response. He'd missed this.

"So, your Naruko-chan's counterpart from another dimension?" He grabbed a chair as he spoke, sitting in reverse as he did so. His voice was business, nothing more than that.

"Apparently."

"You look a lot like Minato, we'll have to change that. Don't worry though I've got a seal for that. You don't act like him at least, more like Kushina, which will make this believable. Not all the Uzumaki died in the fall of Uzu no kunai, some got away. Kushina is a prime example of that. Infect we've found some in the past few years, though all of them have turned down offers to return to Konoha. It wouldn't be hard to pretend an elderly couple of Uzumaki had escaped with their child. The child sired offspring of their own, and thus you were born. Your parents died a few years after and you've been raised by tour grandparent. They thought you fuuinjutsu-hence your great skill in it- and I found you a few days after they died a few years ago. Noticing your skill, I decided to take you on as an apprentice. I've done it before and no one would be too surprised. It is after all how I found Minato. An orphan in the border towns of the land of lighting and the land of fire. "

The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a scroll. He tossed it to Naruto, and the boy caught it easily.

"Me and Minato have spent the past three days creating a backstory for you, it's decently developed without anything that should make you stand out for at least a little while. Though you will have to watch what you say, and remember all things you do say about yourself to incorporate about your personality."

Naruto nodded, before briefly scanning through the scroll. He frowned a bit as me read.

"This says I'm sixteen."

"You can't be much older than that. I've been gone three or so years, and had I picked you up when you were any older well….things would get complicated. Thirteen is a good age for me to find you. Young enough for your fuuinjutsu skills to be prodigious, not too young to be programed, not too old to be put down should you get out of hand, and I have enough clout to keep suspicion off you. The last time I brought in an orphan he turned out to be a Kage when he grew up." Jairay smiled at his own words. Pride evident in his eyes.

"That makes since, I take it we'll be heading out today, and we'll circle around for a few days?"

"Long enough for me to send a messenger toad to Minato and let him know me and my apprentice are _arriving home, _and that he's Uzumaki. I'll unseal your chakra, and apply my seal. We arrive-with your seal applied. At that point a blood test can be done and-"

"The Uzumaki-Namikaze clan can claim me under the clan rights laws."

"Exactly, once you're claimed, and my apprentice, they won't be able to do anything to you. Though any actions you do will be the responsibility of me, and the Uzumaki-Namikaze clans. Though if Minato trusts you I don't expect any trouble from you."

"That's a pretty good plan." Both men turned to Naruko, in the heat of their discussion they had forgotten that she was there.

"Yeah," Naruto remarked as he continued to read through the scroll. Yeah it is.

xxxx-xxx-xxxx

The unsealing of his chakra had begun. They were a week's worth of travel from Konoha, in a clearing surrounded by numerous suppression seal. It was just him and Jiraiya, and Naruto couldn't have been happier. The two had fallen into a steady form a comradeship in the days following their leaving of konoha and had started to come closer. Naruto could tell that the sannin was starting to see him as a friend, even if he still remained guarded in his emotions and responses.

It made him happy, and pushed the thought of _his _Jiraiya's body lying a hole six foot deep.

The sannin hands were blurring, and the seal was glowing a light blue white from the man's energy. He could feel the lines painted onto his skin glowing in response to the vast array drawn on the scroll he was sitting on. The two were tied together, the one on his skin acting as a gate, and the one on the scroll acting like a key. He watched as the man finished the last of his hand seals, then abruptly Naruto felt the cool rush of his Chakra pushing its way, full force, like an unstoppable river, through his veins.

His eyes closed in ecstasy at the moment. His mind wandering in blissful peace as he felt the full depths of his reserves.

"There's something wrong."

"What?" Jiraiya asked, surprised at the boys words.

"There's something wrong with my chakra, it…it doesn't feel right. Doesn't feel like mine should feel."

Naruto could _feel _it, _sense _it. There was something wrong with his chakra. Chakra, well it was hard to explain, but the easiest way he could imagine it was in color. His chakra was a myriad of colors, red, thick deep blue, light green, and that deep rich yellow color. Red was the Kyuubi's and while that always seemed to be in his system, it wasn't the same amount. The great demons chakra was like a stream flowing into a rushing river, humbly adding to its might. Now though, now it was like a single droplet of water falling into a vast lake.

He could tell it was there, but it was in such a small amount, it barely even counted. Then there was his chakra, the deep blue that was him pure chakra, and the light green that was his wind affiliation seemed different. It was his chakra, but it was greener, far greener than should be possible. His one like flowing water through his body, felt like a passing breeze following the same pattern and again.

Then there was the Nature chakra, the one that had once been the smallest source of his energy, the barely tangible connection to all the life of the rest of the world, was more more prominent than it had ever been. It was like a waterfall, a constant cascade of energy flowing into his, mixing with his chakra, blending with it, only to be naturally rushed away.

His chakra was different, wilder, heavier, composed of more wind, and nature than his own chakra once had been. And what about the Kyuubi, he could still feel the demon in him, it was there, _he could feel it,_ like an extension of himself. An aspect of who he was as a whole

"I need to talk to the Kyuubi."

"What?" For a few seconds Jairay was surprised. He had forgotten the blond was a jinchuuriki, that he held a version of the great demon inside him. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Kurama is my partner, he's….he's every bit a part of me as I am of him. Were two different being, like the two sides of the same coin."

He stopped to ponder a moment.

"There's something wrong with my chakra, and Kurama is bound to know what that is."

He closed his eyes and began to meditate.

xxx-xxx-xxxx

His mind was different. He noticed almost immediately, when he entered. The normal sewers were gone, the vast expanse of pipes had disappeared, and instead he was greeted with a vast, unending lake. He stood atop the surface, and beneath it he could see the many colors of his chakra, feel the push and pull of his energy in the pool. Above him the sky's seemed to cast in permanent twilight. Forever stuck in the battle between night and day. He sat down on his surface, and closed his eyes.

_Over there._

He'd found him, and with sudden gusto he sprinted in a random direction. After what seemed like hours he arrived. Land, a rocky beach jagged with razor sharp rocks. Beyond that he could see a forest, and feel the demon that had been with him all his life, slumbering somewhere inside. He ran forward again with gusto. It only took a few moments to find it.

The great demon slumbered in a massive clearing, its great maw occasionally moving as it grumbled and growled it its sleep. Naruto noticed its fur was a far paler shade of red, almost orange in its totality.

"Kurama!" He shouted at the top of his lugs, using his chakra to boost his voice.

The beast kept its eyes closed, though it's nose flared in an attempt to send the boy flying.

"You lazy bastard wake up! Theres something wrong…" He trailed off as he spoke, his voice carrying worry, so the great demon opened it's eyes and Naruto gasped.

The deep, dark red that was the demons eyes were now a rich vivid yellow.

"**You're talking about the Nature chakra, correct?"**

"You know what's going on?"

"**I have some ideas…while you were off playing the prodigal son, I felt what was wrong, and have been thinking…understanding…"**

Naruto was silent as the demon spoke. "What do you think is going on…"

"**You were using Naruto chakra when the masked one sent us to this world. He thought to send us to the void, to the nothingness between realms….Your use of Nature chakra inadvertently saved us, protected us from an eternity of un-death, and maddening nothing. The void...is a place even I fear. Your mind loses itself to the nothingness, you go mad from the lack of stimulation, the lack of sounds, of feelings, even your own thoughts are lost to you as you think them. The void **_**undoes,**_** it unwinds all things. It would have destroyed you, molecule by molecule, undoing your very structure, your very nature, all the while you lost your mind, and I mine. Truly a desolate fate we would have faced. But…we didn't, once again, your luck has saved us."**

"What does this have to do with my chakra?"

"**Always impatient. Nature chakra saved us, as we entered the realm between dimensions the Nature chakra tried to reground itself, reenter the world that we know-the one that we always lived in-and take us with it. It couldn't so, it found the closest world, and reground itself to that realm, and once again took us with it. But the void had touched us, the unwinding had begun, time in the void is different, we could have spent years there, or maybe seconds. It had broken you down, and when we reappeared in this world, my chakra and nature chakra began to rebuild you."**

The demon stopped for a moment its eyes gaining an intense look.

"**When the sage of sage paths created me, I was nothing but pure Nature chakra as were the others, but as we grew, and aged our will, our mind, changed the nature of the nature chakra, and defined itself. Mines became malevolent and evil. But when we existed the void, my chakra had been undone, as was yours and all we had was Nature chakra. My chakra reformed, as did yours. But not independently," **it laughed. A wide grin coming to it's face, resignation on its face. **"Our chakra bonded fused together permanently, and when my chakra reformed, my new will, and your will defined it. Wild and free, unstoppable, half nature chakra itself. Our chakra changed, solidified in its identity, and we became one, if not it body, in spirit."**

Naruto was quite. So my chakra is mostly wind chakra and Nature chakra now? And were bound together, forever. No freedom for you." His voice was quite, the demon held within him, would be imprisoned until his death, and if he died…then…would he take the demon with him?

"**If there was anyone else to be stuck with, I'm glad it's you. You, at least, are the most tolerable of your kind. The least mongrel of all the mongrels." **

They both laughed at the joke.

"I'll find a way to get you out. I promise. You shouldn't be stuck with me forever, I'm terrible company."

"**You are."**

"Hey!" Naruto jokingly mocked hurt. "You're supposed to lie to me and tell me I'm not."

"**I refuse to bring myself down to your idiotic standards."** The great demon laughed, then with a push of chakra, Naruto was back in the waking world.

"So did you figure out what's wrong?"

"Yeah."

"And…."

"My chakra composition has changed, there's more Nature chakra pushing through my system now, I seem to be naturally calling on it. That's all the Kyuubi told me." Naruto frowned as he spoke, wondering what effect his new chakra would have on his techniques.

"We'll have to test out what happens when I use Jutsu when we get back to the village."

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah."

And the two headed off.

xxxx-xxx-xxx

Minato smiled as one of the toad summons dropped off Jiraiya's message. Things were falling into place and in a few minutes the two would be arriving at the gates. He made a hand sign, summoning one of the numerous ANBU that "guarded" him.

"In a few minutes my sensei will be arriving, with him will be a red-haired boy he has taken on as his apprentice. Bring them both to me as soon as they arrive at the gate. Hurry, it's been a long time since I've seen Jiraiya, and I want to see what this apprentice of his is capable off."

The ANBU nodded, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

A few minutes later his door was kicked in and the now red headed Naruto, and the white haired Jiraiya stood in his room.

"Sensei, was all that really necessary?"

"You haven't seen me in three years and the only thing you can do is judge me and how I enter a room? For shame Minato! For shame! Woe betide this poor ol-"

"Arashi-san, it's nice to finally meet you." Naruto smiled, then bowed courtly to play along with the sham.

The ANBU while trustworthy and loyal, were-more or less- rumor mongers in Konoha. Their specialty in information gathering and the like made them the highest spreaders of rumors in Konoha. In a day the entire village would know Jiraiya had taken on a new apprentice while away. One that looked strikingly similar to the Hokage's well-loved wife. In a week, the news that "Arashi" was in some way blood related to Kushina would be village wide news as well. So when she did claim him under the clan rights laws in a few weeks, no one would be surprised.

"It's an honor to meet you as well Hokage-sama, ero-sennin has told me much about his most favored pupil."

Minato let out a hearty laugh. Everyone time he heard the old pervert referred to as ero-sannin brought a wide grin to his face.

"Ero-sennin? What a fitting name for my sensei."

"I get no respect." Mumbled Jiraiya as his student made fun of him.

"Jiraiya, you and Arashi-san can spend time with my family. My home has more than enough room, and Kushina would love your company…for a time." He smiled, and the two left.

News traveled fast in Konoha. By the end of the day common knowledge was Jiraiya was back, and that a red haired apprentice accompanied him on his return.

xxx-xxx-xxxx

He should have never came.

He should have stayed in the house, kept his head under the covers,, and waited the seventy years odd or so years before he would have died of age. He should never have accepted Naruko's invitation. No he corrected himself, his face briefly flashing his anguish. He should have bitten through his tongue when he first woke up, and drowned in the warm flood of his own blood.

But now, he couldn't.

And because of that, he was in turmoil.

Now he stood a few feet away from _her. _Now he could smell the sweet, sweet, scent of flowers that had once been a fixture of his life. Here the bell like voice that had once commanded him. See the glistening platinum blond hair that shined in the morning sun. Feel the calming thrum of her chakra.

He should have said no when Naruko invited Arashi to accompany her to lunch with her friends. But, he knew he couldn't deep down he wanted to see to everyone again, see them alive and breathing like he'd seen Jiraiya. Get along, and push their deaths to the back of his mind.

_But he'd forgotten about her. _

Or maybe he hadn't just wanted to remember.

That didn't matter though, because now she was here. Now he could see her, tell it was her, and at the same time, he could tell it wasn't her; this woman wasn't the same woman he had fallen in love, not the same woman who had dragged him kicking and screaming into loving her. Not the same woman who, after he had lost Hinata, Sasuke, than Sakura, and Kakashi, had come before him, rage in her eyes and _demanded_ he get out his own self-pity.

Not the woman who had dragged him begrudgingly on dates.

Not the woman, who had trained, trained, trained, once she realized that her own weakness and inability to protect herself was driving Naruto mad with worry.

Not the woman who had said _"Just because you're a giant Naruto, doesn't mean I can't knock you down anytime I damn well please." _

Despite her green blue eyes, despite the long platinum blond hair, despite the scent of lavender and roses, and more flowers than he could name. Just from looking at her, he could tell, this soft, lean girl wasn't the same hard firm woman he had fallen in love with.

Despite the turmoil in his heart, as he watched her across the table in this barbeque restaurant Naruto couldn't help but to feel love for her. Though at the same time he felt disgust, at himself and at her, because he knew his love wasn't for this girl, it was for someone else. A woman who looked like this girl-for the Ino before him was indeed a girl and not a woman- and had once acted like this girl, but a woman that would never be. Because the woman he had loved, the _Ino _he had loved, had been birthed in war and hardship, and had died in war and hardship.

Xxx-xxxx-xxxx

**And done, what did you guys think? Review and let me know. **

**Anyways on to things you may have questions on? Heres some i think you may be wondering about.**

**1)You may have noticed my writing sstyle changed: well sorry about that ive been reading the ender series by orson scott card. Ive read through enders game, and speaker for the dead. Im also curretnly reading through xenocide. My writing style has been completly muffed by the way that man writes. Its in my head, and i cant get it out. Ill try to get back to my normal writing style...unless you guys like?**

**2)Whats going on with naruto's chakra?: Well Naruto's chakra has changed, and his new chakra will change how his jutsu works, and eventually affect a main part of this story. **

**3)Will Naruto be visitng other dimensions: yes teh story is called other worlds, this first one is a...stop-gap, a way for me to introduce basic ideas and story details before i get into the meat of things, and i think youll like it when i get into the meat of things. **

**4)Why the long update times?: Im a busy man buddy, guy, pal, and i cant be writing every second of every day. I do have a life. But i decided id develop this story as much as possible before school absolutely consumes me next year. So im focused on this for the summer. **

**5)Why Ino?: Ino seemed like a good choice, someone who's personailioty would pull Naruto out of the depression of having a number of peple extremely close to him died. **

**6) Does naruto come from the original timeline?: No Naruto's timeline is different, he ma cross with the cannon verse, but i dont know how'd id fit that into what ive got planned. But he will cross into one of my own stories(not farmer Naruto, without a doubt thats dead.) called other worlds. **

**7)Will naruto pick up companions?: maybe. ;)**

**As always, read and review fellows, im off to write me something else. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Please read and review guys, I do read every review. This story is getting pretty popular, and I like you guy's response. I do read your reviews, and I have actually taken some advice into consideration d am planning on using it. I even responded to some at the end of this chapter. **

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xxxx-xxx-xxxx

He wanted to go home, to turn his back on the world and huddle into a ball, and just forget _again. _To stop himself from remembering the deaths of the faces that marched into the restaurant like a long progression of his constant failures. First had been Ino, of all people, Ino. A false mockery of the woman he had fallen in love with.

Then came in the rest. First had come Hinata, sweet, lovely Hinata. The woman who had first shown him love, the woman whose death could only be matched with Ino's. Those pale, white eyes, with the slightest tint of violet. And after her the rest came in like a morib funeral progression of his failures. With every face, with every friend that entered he was reminded of his failures; of the could-haves, and would haves, of the "If only's" that had seemed to plague him.

_If she hadn't been there. _

If Ino hadn't been there he would have been able to handle it. To look at those faces, but _with _Ino there, highlighting the mockery that these people unwittingly made of his loss, of his failures…he couldn't stand it. He felt as if all the weight of the world was bearing down on his shoulder. As if he was being suffocated beneath the sheer _scale _of his failures. He felt…trapped, cornered. He needed to get out, to get away. To leave this restaurant and feel the cold chilling air of Konoha on his skin. To look at the sky, and remember the good times, so the bad times wouldn't drown him in the sheer power of their potency.

So he stood up, sent a sad smile towards Naruto and spoke.

"I'm feeling tired Naruko, I'll head to the house."

He turned to the faces of his friends. To the memories he couldn't _help_ but to remember. "It was nice meeting you all, but I'm not in the best shape right now," he smiled at them, a small calming smile. "I hope I can meet you all once more, it was a pleasure to see you."

He left the restaurant walking past the happy smiling friends and family before coming into the cool night air of the village. He sighed, turned towards the Namikaze-Uzumaki home and sprinted.

He landed silently at the windowsill to the small room he was occupying. Slipped in, and fell into bed. Sleep took him, and darkness consumed him as his mind wandered on his failures.

He awoke later, to someone sitting on a corner of the bed. It was Naruko, her breathing was slow, and calm.

"You're awake."

"Yes."

"Did I wake you?"

"Yes…"

"I'm sorry…" She whispered in a sing song like voice. Her hand reached out, and slowly started trailing through his now red locks.

"It's okay."

"What happened earlier in the restaurant? You were okay until you saw Ino, then your chakra freaked out. It felt like, like your chakra had filled the air and just started depressing everyone in the room. Did something happen between you and Ino in your world?"

Naruto smiled in wistful memory. Many things had happened between him and Ino in his home world, many things. "She was my fiancé. We, we were going to get married after everything was over, but, but things didn't work out like we planned. She died trying to protect me…"

Naruto let out a quick sigh. He needed to get out of his hump, but he couldn't. "This Ino looks like my Ino. She looks like the Ino I knew three years ago. But before the war, before she became _my _Ino. She's like a mockery of the Ino I knew, some sick joke. Then the rest walked in; HInata, Shino, Kiba, the rest. Those people died for my ideals, spent their lives for my beliefs, and I failed them, and to see them alive, before they believed my shit and got killed. It…it all fell on me at the same time. I couldn't handle it. So I left."

Naruko was quite. Her mind contemplating the words of her giant of a male counterpart.

"That sucks."

Her words hit home, and Naruto couldn't help to laugh at her them.

"Yeah, It does."

"So…Ino?"

Naruto rolled over, and turned his eyes to her. An eyebrow arched.

"Yes, Ino."

"Why?" Curiosity getting the better of her.

"She was….she was special. When I was at my lowest, when I thought I couldn't feel any worse, when I was thinking of taking a kunai to my neck and ending it all…She dragged me out my house and forced me to go train with her, to eat with her, to talk her her. It wasn't so much as me falling in love with Ino as it was her dragging me kicking and screaming into loving her." He smiled at his own words his eyes gaining a new sheen as he spoke of the woman he loved.

"Ino was the last one that was able to see through my mask and help me work things out. I remember her coming up to me one, and looking into my eyes. This was when thing were really starting to go fubar, and I had lost Sakura and Kakashi in the same week. I remember coming to my door, knocking on it, and then kicking it down when I didn't answer. She hauled me ass off to get some ramen."

Naruto smiled as Naruto reminisced. She hadn't seen the man look quite as content as he did now. Happy, and smiling, his eyes bright with delight and remembrance.

"Her words were _"Uzumaki Naruto, you're not fooling me, now get your ass out your house. We're going to get some ramen." _Deep down I really wanted to go, so when she dragged me kicking and screaming from my house, I didn't really try to fight back. I think I was just happy someone had finally noticed."

Naruko smiled and and ran her fingers through his hair one more time.

"It sounds like you really loved her."

"I still do."

She was quite as she thought over his words.

"I'm sorr-"

"Stop."

She looked confused. "What did I say?"

"I don't need or want pity, you were about to pity me. Stop."

She sighed, and for the last time ran her fingers through his hair.

"I'm not pitying you…" She looked down when she heard deep breathing. He was asleep.

xxxx-xxx-xxxx

Morning came too soon and Naruto couldn't help but to groin in protest at its arrival. Naruto was far from a morning person, in fact as long as he could remember morning was a tedious experience. He had a feeling it had to do with his childhood. That it went back to when he was just a beginning the academy and the days seemed to drag on because the teachers either ignored him, or berated him at every chance they had. Or maybe he was always just not a morning person.

He planted his head deeper into the pillow, wishing for slumber to take him deeper into its embrace. Instead of getting his wishes though, he heard the crash of his door opening and the all too familiar voice of Naruko screaming in his ear. The two red heads looked at one another. Naruto's face taking on a look of sleep backed anger and confusion, Naruko's face holding a wide toothed grin.

Glee was evident in her grey-blue eyes.

"Morning sleepy head!" She screamed into his ear.

It would seem that Naruko _was_ a morning person. That she _did_ enjoy the bright blinding sun, and the annoying sounds, and the smell of….ramen?

"Is that ramen?"

She smiled down at him. He normally liked cheery people, through, her sheer happiness at this instance was just…annoying as hell. But he smelled ramen, and ramen was good.

"Yes, Kaa-chan made it, we have that spar today and she thought ramen would cheer us both up and get us excited."

A fight?

He groaned once more. He'd forgotten about the fight in the storm of emotions that had battered him in the previous night. They'd want to test his skills, to see where he ranked and how capable he was. And from Naruko's words she was apparently his opponent.

"Give me a second." He muttered out. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

Half an hour later he walked down the stairs to the kitchen. He saw half dead Mito and Minato slowly feeding ramen into their face. He laughed at the sight. So now he knew where he got his morning laziness from.

"Morning." He greeted as he grabbed a chair and seated himself in front of a hot bowl of ramen.

"Nhh…." The blonds mumbled out.

"You two need to hurry up. Mito you've got to be at school early today. Your sensei isn't pleased with your skipping, or your pranking."

Naruto turned to the voice, and smiled at Kushina. The woman seemed to thrive in the mornings her face was bright, yet fierce. A motherly face, one that had experienced the troubles of waking the dead every morning for years.

"Morning…" He still didn't know how to address the woman. With Minato it was more…easy? No it was less awkward. He called Minato, just that, Minato. The connection between the man that was his father and the man that was before him didn't quite click. Maybe it was the casual way Minato acted, like a close friend that had known each other for years.

With Kushina though…she acted motherly, and in truth he appreciated it, but he didn't know how to respond to it.

"You two hurry your asses up. A Hokage can't be putting off his work simply because he's sleepy, and Mito, get your ass to school. The later you are the more punishment you'll get." Kushina turned to him again. A warm smile on her face. "Morning N," she stopped remembering his new name. "Morning Arashi-kun. How are you doing?"

"Good. And you?"

"Trying to get the dead out my house and onto their business."

They both laughed at the joke, and Naruto fell into a comfortable ease as he ate. His mind wandered to his upcoming fight. He wasn't sure about Naruko's skill level, but her being special Jounin at her age, and not in a wartime situation spoke of her skill. She was likely a jutsu specialist and close range fighter. Her physical shape, while lean, and firm, indicated strength and precision. She was also like skilled at fuuinjutsu. Kushina and Minato wouldn't have let her get to special Jounin without teaching her some Fuuinjutsu.

"So, are you ready for your spar against Naruko?"

"I should be, though my chakra is acting weird. It shouldn't really impact most of my low level techniques and I won't be using any of my higher ones because those are more meant to be used to kill, than to be used in a friendly spar."

"I hope you know Naruko isn't a pushover, and I'm betting you aren't either."

Naruto laughed. "No, I don't think I am."

xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx

Naruto could sense the crowd of people gathering in the trees. Could feel the varied signals of all their chakra humming together just outside the training field. They were watching this fight. Anticipating it.

He smiled a bit, he'd always loved attention, always hungered for it as a child, but as an aldult he found himself disliking it. He'd rather fit in the background and be forgotten, but it seemed like he was always being pushed to the foreground of everyone's attention.

"You ready?" He turned to Naruko, she had a wide grin on her face. She was in low, loose shorts that cut off right above her knees. Tight bandaged bound them taunt to her feet, and a dark blue form fitting tee covered her upper torso.

He smiled at her, and stretched. He bit his thumb flared his chakra and ran his bloody hand cross a seal on his palm. A ninjato appeared in his hand.

"I am now."

She was fast and appeared in front of his face in an instant. He ducked beneath the blow, dodging it and parrying with an attempted strike. She poofed away into a log when he connected, and he had to perform a replacement when he heard the familiar hiss of an explosive tag.

She was fast, he admitted, but not as fast as him. Nowhere near as fast as him. He'd face faster, countless times on both friendly and unfriendly terms.

He spotted her barreling towards him, and he met her mid-way. She seemed surprised as he appeared in front of her, sending a kick towards her abdomen so fast her body didn't react until after he had connected. She careened across the training field, before coming to stop a few feet away.

She was up almost instantly.

"Was that love tap all you got?"

He smiled at her, she was cheeky. Half the fun of a good fight was the banter. "I decided to go easy on you since you moved slower than a sloth."

They both laughed and launched at one another once more. Thiers was a battle of dodges and blocks, and as they fought Naruto was paying close attention to her movements. She was fast, but then again not as fast as he could be, and he wasn't sure if she was placing her all in the speed department. She as strong but not as strong as him. Her reaction time was fast but not as fast as his.

This fight of taijutsu was…boring. Tedious, and slow, like limiting one's own abilities in order to let someone win an obvious fight. She was good, and skilled he noted, just not as good and as skilled as him. Maybe fighting monsters like the Akatsuki, Madara, and tobi had changed his perspective on the subject. Maybe fighting the monsters of the ninja worlds had made him into a monster of a sort. Someone he couldn't be beaten, let alone fought on square terms, unless one was a monster themselves.

This fight of taijutsu was mundane and boring. He saw every swing of her fist, parried every attempted strike, and stopped every blow she tried. She was good, she was skilled…but, but what? A realization struck him as they separated from each other. She was good, but he was on a whole different level. He'd fought kage-level ninja when he was only fifteen, and while she was skilled, she was a jounin in skill,and that didn't come even close to matching him.

"Fūton: Shinkūgyoku"

Bullets of wind careened towards him, he _felt _them, as much as he saw them coming towards him. Like the slow moving blunted kunai academy students used to throw, except bigger and likely far more dangerous. On reflex he flared his chakra, and his strange combination of wind natured chakra and pure nature chakra batted them away.

"The hell?"

Naruto was as surprised as his female counterpart. He'd never done something like that before.

_I wonder._

His hand flashed into s series of seals. "Futon:Jūha Shō," thick wide lacerations of blades tore from his hands decimating the area around them as they tore forward. Naruko barely dodged the technique with a carefully timed shushin and replacement.

_Just like I thought. My winds element its stronger, far, far stronger than before. A simple c-rank jutsu shouldn't be doing anywhere near that damage. Oh god, how monstrous is the rasenshuriken now? _

"That was a c-rank fuuton jutsu. Exactly how strong is your wind element?"

He smirked at her, gripped his ninjato hard, and took a defensive stance. "I've worked on it a lot." He moved again and in an instance she was on the defensive. Barely blocking blows and strikes that should would have debilitated her. He made a hand sign and suddenly two of him were on the offensive. Both trying to stop Naruko, pushing the young woman further and further. Slowly showing her the gap in their skill level.

She grimaced as the realization dawned on her. He was beyond her, fighting him felt like fighting her father, or mother. Holding back just enough to push her to the edge and test her limits. He was beyond her.

"Stop playing with me, show me what you've got." She demanded.

He obliged. Blurring into action and overwhelming her in an instant. Hundreds of shallows cuts marred her arms in a second, and then a palm slapped into her abdomen, and she felt the stinging burn of a seal being placed on her. She saw black, and she fell, her blue-grey eyes looked up at Naruto, saw his face marred with worry, and realized that it hadn't even taken him a second to end the fight after she demanded it from him.

"Winner, Uzumaki Arashi!"

Naruto frowned as he observed the crowd one more time. They were silent, but watching him now with even greater attention than before.

_I really hate attention. _

xxx-xxx-xxx

Naruko woke the following morning in a hospital bed, the silent beeping of the machines and the sterile smell of the place alerting her to where she was. She turned her head, and much to her surprise saw the red tufts of hair of Naruto. She smiled down at him, and turned her head. A flower shops worth of flowers surrounded her. She smiled a bit, and wondered both how long she'd been unconscious and how long Naruto had been by her side.

"N-," she chastised herself as she remembered his new name "Arashi…." She poked him in his head, and slowly the blond woke up.

"Huh?"

"Arashi, how long have I been out, and how long have you been here?"

"Wha-, your 'wake!"

She smiled at his excitement to her awakening.

"How long have I been out?"

"A couple weeks. I used a sedation seal on you, though, I think I may have overcharged it. Minato and Kushina have been worried sick."

"A couple weeks? What's happened since then."

"Nothing much, though there are rumors going around…"

"Rumors..?"

"I'm not sure if you'd like them…"

"Tell me them first." She was intrigued. Rumors came and went in Konoha. It was part of daily life. An everyday occurrence that happened and spread.

"Well...apparently Kushina conspired with the pervert to get us together. Trying to bring the Uzumaki-clan back and all that. Though, now that I think about it, I spending so much time by you're beside more than likely compounded those rumors. The flowers didn't help too much either."

She was quiet for a moment before she burst into laughter.

"Those are _some _rumors."

"Yes, they are." He smiled back.

"I have an idea for a great prank."

He smiled at her, and both settled into a comfortable well-meant silence.

"Tell me about it." He smiled a wide smile.

xxx-xxx-xxxxx

**Chapter over yeah? This was on the shorter end around 3k words instead of 3600 would have made it longer but I felt lazy as shit. This chapter was to develop Naruto and Naruko's relationship. In a few chapters things will start picking up. And I think you guys will like what I have in store. **

**Naruto's chakra is weird, and I also wanted to show the skill difference between the two, and there is a huge one. The way I see it Naruko is skilled, but she hasn't fought the monsters Naruto has fought, and so hasn't had to rise to the challenge. Naruto on the other hand, has had to fight monsters and has risen to that challenge so…yea.**

**Time to answer some grievances. **

**Imsabbel: have you ever noticed how large Jiraiya is? Hell he's taller than Kakashi and I think Kakashi's a good 6'2. From what we can see Jairay is abnormally tall and large. My explanation for this is Nature chakra. Look at the summons, they have more ready access to Nature chakra and their huge as fuck. The idea is Nature chakra promotes growth, and Naruto having more access to Nature chakra would be larger. I hope that answers your questions?**

**Balthazart:Is this Naruto x Naruto? Hmm…i'm actually thinking that out. Planning how I'd incorporate it into the greater story arch, and liking what i've got planned out. **

**Thank you very much for your support guys, as always read and review. I do read everyone's reviews please, read once more. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Well this chapter has a fight between Minato and Naruto. I thought I should introduce it, show that Minato and Naruto are more or less equal in terms of skill, but in power they differ. Next chapter will take awhile to write, it is gonna' be around 6-7k words so expect a longer update time. Also ill kindly ask you to visit my author's page and check out my other story "Drive." Truthfully speaking this chapter is more or less to further develop Naruko's character, and Naruto and Naruto's relationship. She's gonna be pretty important to the story later on. Next chapter starts Naruto and Naruko on their journey. So….yes. Things are going along nicely.**

**Also I have a story idea to pitch to you at the end of this chapter after my authors notice. It's for something I'm working on, and since this is my most popular story so far, I'd like you guy's opinions.**

**Read and review. **

xxx-xxx-xxx

Naruto couldn't help but stare at Naruko as she proposed her supposed prank. It was funny…in a way. Funny in that self-secluded, internalized joke between two people way. The idea she proposed though was weird, and he had no idea the type of fallout it would have with Minato and Kushina, let alone if _he _was comfortable with the idea. It wasn't that he didn't think it was funny, it was that, in the long term he could see this coming back to bite him in the ass. But then again, a pranks, even a pranks between two people, was still a prank.

"Tell me again how this works out Naruko?"

"Well the Rumors say were dating right?"

"Yes?"

"Well let's see how hot we can stoke the flames, how far the rumors can go when we give them just tidbits of information to work with." Naruto stopped for a moment, the joke between the two would be funny, but to be honest, where would the prank in that be.

"I still don't see the point, I mean, best case scenario Minato and Kushina get in on this and we all play laugh at this as one big joke. Worst case scenario Minato and Kushina think me and you are in some weird incestuous, narcissistic, self-love romance….and I'm not sure which would be more horrifying, them accepting it, or them rejecting it."

"Please, like I'd think of seriously dating you?" Naruko questioned snootily, while Naruto did nothing more then send a blank look towards her. His face conveying his incredulity.

"You do realize I'm you right? And that the people we love the most are literally ourselves. To be honest your actually pretty good looking."

"Coming from me I take that as a compliment." They both laughed at the joke.

"So, how do we pull this off?"

"Tell me the full scope of the rumors. Exactly how involved to people think we are?"

Naruto laughed before he spoke, "They think we're dating and that an arranged marriage to preserve the "Uzumaki" part of the Uzumaki-Namikaze line may be going on under the scenes. They think Minato and Kushina have been corresponding with my "parents" for years, and that Jairaya was nothing more than a delivery man. Someone dropping me off to get hitched into your clan." He smiled, and laughed as he thought it over.

" Some aren't too happy with it either."

"I say lets rile em up. If they think were engaged lets act engaged." She had a mischievous smile on her face. "Small things can turn big given enough direction..."

Naruto smiled in response to her. He was liking this more in more, years in war, and mental scarring hadn't erased the fond childhood memories of getting a good prank over people.

"Still…Minato and Kushina…I'm not sure how they would react to this idea, and the strange incest-selfcest thing, and considering I live in their house…"

"Kaa-chan, and Tou-san would be more than happy to go along with our idea if we explained it to them," she winked at him "and if it turns into something more I'm sure we'd have their support."

He had the decency to blush. The idea of them being something more was somewhat appealing. It wasn't like this female version of himself wasn't attractive, quite the opposite she was very attractive. One could even claim she was dashing and quite beautiful. But he couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty at his feelings, in essence she was _him_ and it would be a bit narcissistic to be attracted to one another wouldn't it. But then again, if he were to…_no…_he decided not to take his thoughts there. The last thing he needed to visualize was _that. _

Then, as if to increase the sheer amount of _shame _he felt, as if to compound the ill-ease and his arousal, and his general feeling of weirdness Minato burst into the room a wild grin on his face, slowly followed by Kushina and Mito.

"And what would you two have our support in?"

She smiled a wicked grin, and Naruto felt doom in the pits of his stomach. "Me and Naruto were talking about how we're a thing now, and how'd you two would react when you found out." Naruto was horrified, a look of abject terror coming across his face as Naruko spoke.

The room was deathly silent for a moment, then Minato smiled a wide grin and enveloped Naruto in a wide hug.

"Well, I'm glad you too hit it off so well."

Naruto stood flabbergasted, then suddenly Mito, Kushina, Minato, and Naruko broke out into wide spread laughter. It would seem he'd been the butt of some great joke, before he too broke out into a fit of laughter.

"Naruko, you're a terrible liar." Mito called out through gasped breaths.

Naruko was too busy laughing at her own joke to respond, but after a few minutes she'd calm down enough to speak. "Still tou-san, I was thinking of doing something to keep the other clans off our asses for a while, while also playing a wonderful little prank on them all."

"Does this have anything with the whole idea of you two being a couple?" Kushina asked as she took the only other seat in the room.

"Yeah, I say we let the rumor mill run wild, hell we feed it tidbits of information every once in awhile Let it breed itself crazy, hell we can see how far we can take it before things start getting ludicrously crazy."

"I like this idea." Kushina spoke, and Naruto sent a wayward look towards her. He couldn't be the only one feeling uncomfortable about this idea could he? Or was his attraction to Naruko causing him to feel uncomfortable about the idea, he cast a wayward look towards Naruto and felt even more guilt and disgust at himself pit in the bottom of his stomach.

"It'll keep those bastard young men, and their groping hands off my daughter. Who better to stop the horn-dogs then a male version of herself…though," Minato cast an thoughtful look at Naruto, "I wonder."

"Explain your plan Naruko, you have the full support of the Namikaze-Uzumaki family."

"Okay so…." Naruto could do nothing but slump deeper into his seat as the group conversed about things that would involve him, that he preferred didn't involve him

xxx-xxx-xxx

As Naruto walked through Konoha, he couldn't help but look down in abashed embarrassment. In his opinion this entire thing was far out of control, he could hear the whispers of the people around him as he moved, feel their eyes watching him, and feel them judging him. The angry look Minato seemed to purvey as they walked towards the Namikaze-Uzumaki family training grounds didn't help him at all.

"Do we really have to do this?"

"Of course we do!" quipped Kushina cheerily as they walked. She was talking just enough to allow people to overhear the conversation. "It's an Uzumaki-tradition. My own father wasn't alive, but I damn well made sure Minato fought sarutobi-sama."

"Besides the most believable rumors are always based on some foundation of truth, and always credited by somewhat relevant facts."

Naruto hid his face deeper into his palms, the mummers were getting louder and already he could hear, their multitude of whispers. He really wanted no part of this, at first he had thought it humorous but the deeper he got into it, the less he wanted to be in it. The looks of the villagers were burning into him, he didn't want to be noticed he didn't want to be watched, he didn't want to feel guilty for his feelings but he was being noticed, he was being watched, and he did feel guilty.

It took a few minutes for them to arrive at the training ground and once they did Naruto couldn't help but feel excited. It had been months since he'd gotten into a friendly spar, and he needed someone he could test the full scope of his abilities with, without the fear of killing them.

Mintao stood across from him, his sunny blond hair swaying in the wind. The fake scowl he'd donned when they'd walked through the village was wiped off his face, and a small firm smile was now it's replacement.

"I want to see how strong you are."

"I'm pretty sure I'd be able to beat you, I mean you are getting up in the years."

"I'm In my forties, some would say that's the highest echelons of life."

"Only old me would say that, and only to men half their age."

They both laughed at the joke before swiftly separating from one another.

They didn't speak after that, they didn't have to, and they couldn't even if they wanted too. They were blurring towards each other, two shimmering blots of color that collided in the middle of the training grounds. Blue, white and yellow, collided with grey, red, and orange, and both were repelled from the force of each others blow.

Naruto smirked at Minato, then his chakra flared, and the Namikaze-Uzumaki family stepped back. His chakra was…potent, an oppressive all powerful force that dominated by the very nature of it existence. His chakra was visible, a potent yellow-green energy that ripped and tore at everything it touched. Minato though responded with a flare of his own chakra, a brilliant blue light that pierced through the oppressive feeling of Naruto's own power. In the flare of energy a ninjato had appeared in Naruto's hand. The winds blew, and the ninjato gained a thin ghostly glow, air shimmered around it.

Minato pulled out infamous tri-pronged kunai soon that glowed with the white light of lightning chakra.

"You know, the wind is my element?"

"And lightning's mine."

A flash of yellow and the battle began once more. They moved fluidly dancing around each other, blows lashing out at the right moment, each carefully observing one another. It was a ballet between two skilled killers, and the dance was a friendly one of swift stabs, and swifter blocks. In taijutsu they were matched, Minato's style was high precision, no movement was wasted, no attack unplanned, no block done haphazardly. His style held the signatures of a man who was tenaciously meticulous, a man who would spend, day, week, months, and even years to perfect something if he had too. It was a perfect match for Naruto's style.

Naruto fought like a maelstrom, a wild, haphazard maelstrom that raged. Blows came swift and heavy, breaking through guards, and glancing away haphazard, he didn't block, instead he flowed around blows, like the wind. Moving fluently from one form to another, from one attack to another. Minato was lighting, striking hard and fast, Naruto was a storm flowing and moving, leaving all he touched damaged in his wake.

The two men fought for what seemed like hours before finally separating.

"You're good for an old man."

Minato laughed for a moment. "And you're good for a brat, but I'll always be a few steps ahead of you."

He disappeared in a flash of light, and Naruto felt the man's fist connecting with his body before he could process his words. He was sent skidding backwards, momentum and the force of the blow sending him flying.

He corrected himself midair, just in time for Minato to appear again, and send him crashing to the ground with a vicious kick. Flashes of light and monstrous strikes, landed, each more brutal than the last, an unforgiving series of blows that built on the momentum and inherent nature of the flying thunder god. Naruto was feeling the damage, each blow that landed was like a hammer pounding its way into his boy.

His chakra flared, and a torrent of wind blew Minato away. He gained his barking and the translucent shield of wind slowly started to fade. He concentrated, willed it to stay, and it did. A shimmering shield of wind that protected him, and the next time Minato appeared he found his hit flowing past Naruto.

"That's interesting."

"Yes, it is."

xxx-xxxx-xxx

Naruko Uzumaki watched in awe as her father and her counterpart fought. She knew her father was strong, she knew her father was skilled, she _knew _it, but she hadn't quite comprehended it. The sheer gulf between her and her father, hell between her and her mother-since her mother was supposedly as skilled as her father- was astounding. And perhaps even more breathtaking was the fact that Naruto could keep up with him. Her father was a monster on the battlefield, a seemingly unconquerable mountain, whose summit one could never reach no matter how hard they tried, and even more astounding Naruto was a mountain easily as large as her father.

She watched, her awe growing when a dragon of pure lighting was birthed from her father's mouth and sent roaring towards Naruto. She shuddered at the power of the technique, she could feel, even so far away from the battle she could feel it, the distant sparks of electricity dancing its way around her body.

"Naruko, we've got to make a barrier. Those two idiots are going to ruin the training grounds _and _the house if we let them run amok."

She nodded at her mother words, but kept her eyes glued to the battle before her. Naruto had cut, _cut, _through the jutsu with his ninjato. And was already running in a full-fledged sprint towards her father. Even as she moved to start the barrier technique her mind stayed on the subject of Naruto.

The fight they'd had couldn't even be considered a fight. They weren't even close to equal, she was good, but when Naruto had fought her, he'd been more than holding back. He had _handicapped _himself, he'd only used one jutsu in that fight, and the rest was pure taijutsu.

Her hands flashed through the seals, and her palm slapped against the ground. Seal script rushed across the ground, and a few seconds later a thick blue barrier surrounded the training ground. Just in time, Naruko noted, as the few tree in the training grounds were leveled from gale force winds.

The battle raged on and Naruko realized the two had forsaken taijutsu, now moving on to nothing but ninjutsu as they fought. She watched as lighting flew, and winds countered. They danced abounds each other, barely touching the grounds, moving as soon as they got traction. To be still was to loose, so they didn't stay still. Her father flashed around the battlefield, and Naruto glided, bluring from one place to another, his movements seemingly random, yet flowing.

All the while techniques flew.

"Odama Rasengan!" Her father cried out, and a large blue ball was birthed in his palm, easily his height, and twice his width the swirling ball of death headed towards Naruto.

"Fuuton: Rasengan" Naruto called out in response. A green fist sized ball of chakra was birthed. It crashed with the Odama Rasengan, and a white dome of energy was created from the clashing techniques. Then it exploded, ripping and shredding the ground as the shockwave from the explosion expanded, the trees were ripped from the earth. For a brief second the air caught on fire, and the trees that hadn't been tossed on their sides were lit aflame, burning and cowling under the intense heat. Parts of the ground melted, and molten earth was left.

Naruko grimaced, the barrier was barely holding from the brute force of the resulting explosion. She pumped more chakra into the technique. She'd never seen something like this before, a battle between two titans, two living forces clashing, and even after the devastation the two still fought.

"Fuuton:Rasen-Shuriken."

Wind and lightning still flew even as the training grounds laid destroyed. Flashes of yellow light amid gale force gusts of winds. Then the air seemed to change, the dry harsh air of the fire country summer was replaced with the wet humid air of coming rains. The sun was momentarily blotted from the sky, and her gaze turned upwards. She gasped at what she saw. At least thirty feet wide a swirling disk of death loomed overhead. The sky's seemed to be buckling, the sudden storm was centering on the jutsu, and the clouds seemed to be funneling down, merging into the disk.

A tornado was forming.

She pumped her chakra desperately trying to reinforce the barrier. Whatever that was, whatever monstrosity of a technique that had just been birthed...

"I forfeit." She heard her father cry out. As suddenly as it had appeared, as quickly as the monstrous technique had been birthed, it was gone.

xxx-xxxxx-xxxx

Kushina Uzumaki looked at the two males, a look of disdain crossing her face as she wrapped, and treated their various wounds.

"That hurts Kushina-chan…" Kushina's anger flared, and she tightened the bandages she was wrapping her husband in. He winced, and whined once more.

"You two idiots went too far! It was supposed to be a quick spar, something to validate the rumors. You were not, I repeat _were not_, to completely trash our training grounds. Do you have any idea how much it'll cost to fix that? We're not made of money you idiots!"

Both men cowered beneath the wrath of the angry woman, and Naruko, watching from not too far off, couldn't help but to laugh at the jokes. It was hard for her to reconcile these childlike men with the monster that had left only destruction in the wake of their battle.

"But Kushina-chan…"

"Don't but me!"

Again both men withered before her anger, and again Naruko laughed in amusement. She looked at Naruko, her eyes studying the young redhead appraisingly.

"Naruto…how did you get so strong?"

He was quite, his face brows scrunching in comtemplation as he thought. "Well it's a long story. But I can tell you if you want me too?"

Mito chose now as the time to intervene. "Tell us!"

"Well…Its pretty simple. Every fight I've ever been in has been against someone stronger than me. Faster than me. Someone smarter, or better, or more skilled or more experienced. My first chunin exams I fought Orochimaru of the Detsu sannin and he nearly killed me. In that same chunin exams I fought the Ichibi Jinchuuriki and Neji Hyuuga-someone considered a heralded genius of my generation. I never had any…normal opponents. I never had anyone to fight I could be considered on equal terms with. Everyone I fought was a monster, or at least way more skilled than me. And every time I fought them I won, by luck or chance. But then…something changed. I stopped winning by luck, fighting those monsters, facing those odds, they made me more skilled, made me…no. Those fights forced me to become a monster. To face those odds or die, trying. I got as strong as I am, because I was forced to get strong. For me it was either get stronger or die."

The room was silent, and Naruko took his words in. contemplating them as he spoke. Mito broke the silence.

"Wow! That's so cool!"

Naruto laughed at the sudden break in the thick nearly malleable tension. "Yes, I guess it is kinda cool."

"So, Naruko, since your spearheading everything, what's the next step?"

Naruko laughed.

"We drop hints about Uzumaki marriage traditions, then we call people to fix the training grounds, let them know it got that way in a spar. We also let hints drop that Minato and "Arashi" managed to hurt themselves in a spar."

"Considering the chakra these two were pouring over each other it wouldn't be too hard for people to believe."

"Plus that last technique Naruto performed was more than visible. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the village saw that thing. Thigns will start moving on their own once we get the ball rolling."

Naruto blushed and placed a hand behind his head.

"Exactly how is this a prank?" Naruto asked, he didn't see the humor in this whole scheme at all. "This sounds like some convoluted scam to get marriage proposals off your back, and fuel rumors."

"Well…" Naruko was quite, and she had no particular response. "You make a good point, but you're in too deep to get out now! You're all in too deep."

Naruto sighed, then buried his head in his hands.

xxxx-xxxx-xxx

**And….end. Well how did you like that chapter? I'm not too skilled at writing fight scenes but I hoped you liked it…yeah? Things start to pick up next chapter. I already explained this chapter's existence at the beginning of the chapter.**

**Time to answer question!:**

**Deusol: Naruto grew, last chapter was about Naruto's changing opinion. As a kid all he wanted was attention. He got it, in fact he got it and then some. He placed what friends he had in danger, and as an adult he doesn't want attention. He just wants to spend time with his friends and be left alone. **

**The rasenshuriken, or what I have planned as the rasenshuriken was hinted at in this chapter. It start storms with its creation, and in its final form it will be monstrous. **

**As always read and review! **

**xxx-xxx-xx**

**So I promised you something special didn't I? Here it is? A story idea im working on.**

**xxx-xxx-xxx**

The rains fell.

Tiny droplets of water, each one stinging, hurting, shearing its way into his body with its decent. The rains fell, the water washed over his body, and the mud beneath him seeped into his open festering wounds. Blond hair laid matted against his forehead, and his eyes remained closed.

_Why wasn't he dead? _

Why, after everything, wasn't he dead? Why? Why did he still live? He'd earned death hadn't he? He'd redeemed their deaths hadn't he? He'd re-killed Madara, _eviscerated _Obito. Made sure that each were not only dead, but that their souls would never receive the peace that was the after life. He'd sealed the Juubi away in a technique that should have cost him his life, and yet….

_Why wasn't he dead? _

Yet he lived. Yet he remained alive, feeling the droplets of rain beat on his face, feeling the thick disgusting mud seep into his wounds, feeling the low thrum of his weakened heart in his chest. Where everyone he had known, where everyone he had loved, where all the lives that had been lost that shouldn't have been. Where there had been so much death, and destruction, _he lived. _

He shouldn't have lived, he couldn't live, he didn't deserve to live. _He refused to live._

He willed his body to give up, willed his heart to stop beating, but…but nothing. He lived.

_He lived. _

"God damn it." The words escaped his lips, they were hoarse, and harsh.

"God damn it!" He screamed, he screamed against the sheer unfairness of the world, the fact that his body refused to die, and he was too weak to end his own life.

"God damn it…" He whispered. Tears streaming down his closed eyes, the rain still falling, mixing in with the salty liquid and sloshing to the floor.

"Why?" He whispered, and only the splatter of raindrops, only the thunder of the storm that raged above was the world's response. He couldn't talk anymore, couldn't demand anymore.

So he fell to the darkness, he fell unconscious all the while hoping he would die. All the while wondering why he wasn't dead.

But still, _uncaring_, _unmoving_, _unchanging_ in the land of rain, the rain fell.

**xxx-xxxx-xx**

**So what do you think?**


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter was supposed to be around 6k words but a writer's block in the later part made me cut this in half and just release this one part at a time. This might end up being a 3 part "chapter."**

**This chapter answers some questions, opens up some more and channels a lot more phillip k. dick than I'd like. For those of you that like scifi, you'll love the reference in the next chapter. I wonder who will get it. If you do, brownie points for you, hell if you get it I might even do a little drawing for you. **

**I've always wanted a hundred reviews, could you guys help me get to it this chapter?**

**Also who wants to beta for me? Please?**

**As always please read and review. **

xxx-xxx-xxx

The Kyuubi stood across from him, its light yellow eyes looking down at him apathetically. Its large maw spread wide, showing rows of razor sharp teeth, its light orange fur waving in the wind of his mind. Naruto couldn't help but to smile at the beast. The last of his friends left, only because this friend couldn't be killed.

He sat on the ground, leaning back against a tree and staring up at the perpetual moon that hung overhead.

"**You're troubled."**

"You know me too well."

"**Only because I've spent your entire life with you. I am to you as you are to me. We were bound once, by the god of death. Now we are bound by our nature, by our very existence we are bound. You are troubled. Speak."**

"I want to go back home, I need to finish what I started, I don't belong here. I like Kushina, Naruko, Minato, and Mito, but….I want to go home."

"**Impossible. Transversing the worlds is easy, in relative terms, but finding the world you wish to move too is impossible. It will never happen. You don't understand how the worlds work. Your mind isn't designed to understand the working of the worlds and void. Even my mind struggles with it. "**

"Try to explain it to me."The kyuubi was silent, its maw moving, and its nose flaring. Its great yellow eyes dimmed as the creature thought.

"**It is hard for me to conceive how to tell you. Imagine dice. This dice has three sides. That is how you view, comprehend and understand the world. Now imagine that dice, imagine it overlaps itself a thousand times over, and every time it overlaps itself a new dimension to the dice is formed. After a while a shifting amorphous mass is formed. A mass of infinite depth, of an infinite dimensions and every one of those dimensions has pocket dimension's weaved into the fabric of that dimension. These dimensions occasionally come close to one another in the mass, the distance is close enough to allow transversal, but just for seconds, just for an instance. Then it's gone, and those two dimension will never come together again in your lifetime, hell they'll never come together again in **_**my **_**lifetime. That's of course in human terms, that's the only way to get you to imagine it. If you could conceive it how I convened it, view it how I viewed it…then you would truly understand how destitute our situation is, how impossible you wish it."**

Naruto frowned, and his cast skywards towards the moon. It was larger than before, the once distant disk that glowed in solitude overhead now dominate half the sky. Its light had turned the perpetual twilight into a blue hued noon. It would seem that this world in his mind, unlike the sewers that had once occupied it before, responded to his emotions. A sense of foreboding overcame him, and so, the moon overcame the sky, dominating it like no moon ever could.

"So I can't return home."

"**No." **The demon's voice was sad, its tone slow. The Kyuubi no Kitsune didn't feel compassion for many, it didn't feel empathy for many, its inception, its birth, the very nature of its existence prevented that. But those it did feel comparison for, it felt compassion like no other. Uzumaki Naruto would never know exactly how much the demon cared for it, would never understand the depths to which the Kurama would go to help him. The term to hell and back could never be as apt as in the case with Uzumaki Naruto and Kurama.

"But I can't stay here, this place…this place is…I can't explain it."

"**It's too peaceful, too happy."**

"That's not it."

"**I know you Naruto, I know you like no other. I know you better than **_**she **_**did. Because I've all these years. I've experienced everything you have. Every fight, every kill, every act of love and devotion, **_**I**_** have been with you. Every thought, your guilt, your shame, your love, **_**I **_**have felt them, heard them**_**. War has changed you**_**, you need the battles like you need air. The fights and chaos like you need food. War became a part of you, this place is too peaceful, to calm. You can feel it, **_**I know you can. **_**Your chakra is screaming to go wild, to be released. To fight."**

Naruto didn't reply, he didn't want too. He knew any response he made would be a lie. When Ino had died, he'd broken a bit inside. Cracked somewhere in his psyche, when Ino had fallen, when she looked up at him blood seeping from her mouth and said, _"Stop being such a drama queen. Everyone's gotta die sometime." _

So he was quite, and his eyes looked up at the giant Moon that hung over head. Its light was searing now, burning into his cornea. A heatless light that touched everything it shone on.

"**What are you going to do?"**

"I don't know, I made a promise to find a way to free you. I'll try to find a way to do it.

Kurama looked down at Naruto. It's great big eyes watching him.

"**I have some ideas, though I'm not sure if your mind would be able to comprehend the idea."**

"Sure, Insult the guy that's going to free you. That's a good idea."

"**You keep your promises, I insulting you won't change your attempts to free me."**

"Smartass."

The kyuubi laughed, its deep voice filling the forest that surrounded Naruto. **"Summoning."**

"That…" he was quiet for a moment as he thought things over. "That's brilliant, but, I don't know how to write a summoning contract."

"**The contract is not a contract. It's a network. An interweaving web of connections with nodes that allow those included in the web to summon one another. Imagine a series of links. When you summon, you summon the summons immediately closest to you on the link while thinking of the Summon you intend to summon. They summon the next person on the web of summon connections. Some summons have two or more connections allowing the summons to summons a multitude of others, speeding up the process. When you summon blood is used to identify you in the contract, and chakra and intent is used to summons the person you wish to summon, or at least send the summon request down the web. Chakra is also used, to form the basis of the summons physical body when you summon them and anchor them to where you summoned them, at least momentarily. It takes years to write a proper summons contract, and when one is written one usually has to modify to change the contract to include new people. That, or write the contract to retroactively modify itself, something that takes an entire new, set of seals and instruction, and a completely new approach to the summon web."**

"So if it's a series of links, and I just want to summon you…a summon contract between me and you could simply be a two way deal. No a one way deal. Anchor you to me, and allow me to summon you, or you to summon yourself to me. But…how would I summon you. You don't have a physical body, and you exist in my mind."

"**Its not that simple. This isn't your mind to say. It's a mind scape, a pocket dimension tied to you, influenced by your subconscious, and used to hold me. You'd have to gain conscious control of it, understand the mindscape, then you could inscribe the function and relations of the mind-scape into the seal. There's also the fact that were inherently bound to one another, our chakra is tied, you'd have to find a way to maintain the connection that bounds the two of us lest we die. "**

"I'd have to find a way to open the dimension, to allow you to go in and out. Then I'd have to write the contract to allow me to summon you, and you to summon yourself to me while also finding a way to give you a physical body, while also maintaining our mental chakra connection." He frowned at the daunting challenge of the task. It could take years, if he worked with clone's months, if he was lucky maybe weeks.

"**Like I said, you may not be able to do it."**

"I made a promise, and so far that's the only way we've got to set you free." Naruto looked up at the sky, the talk of seals had calmed him, and the moon now stood where It once had before.

"**Why don't you return," **the beast was quite for a moment.** "Is it the red-headed vixen?"**

"No." It smiled at him, its maw growing wide with glee.

"**It is. What a cute little conundrum you've trapped yourself in. You feel guilty over your attraction to her, your devotion to Ino still holds true, even after her death, your attraction to what is essentially yourself, and at the sometime your sister, compounds your guilt even more. You feel as if you're betraying your love, she's dead mind you and her opinion on the matter is pointless. You also feel guilty and unsure about your attraction to the red-haired vixen, again unfounded due to the nature of humanity. Your species is vain, and unbelievable attracted to itself, she is you, except femal, better yet falling into your own vain hood, by creating a you that you may sexually conquer. What silly little conundrums your race gets itself into."**

Naruto frowned, for a moment he got angry, his face contorting in rage as he spoke. The winds blew through his mindscape, and the boon turned a blood red overhead

"You wouldn't understand."

"**You're Right, I wouldn't, I only love my brother and sisters, and they do not die, and the love I feel for them is not the same sexual romantic love you feel. I am not human, I cannot feel as you feel, though I can emphasize, but because I can emphasize does not mean I do not find humor in your situation." **The beast finished with a laugh.

"**It seems I've angered you. Leave, I'm sure you've better things to do than talk to me."**

xxx-xxx-xxx

He awoke to Naruko watching him, her face looming over his. Her blue-grey eyes stared into his won pits of deep sea blue.

"Yes, that's exactly what I wanted, I wanted somebody to creepily watch me while I slept." Naruto's voice dripped with sarcasm and exhaustion, and Naruko laughed in response.

"Kaa-san wants me to go shopping, so I decided I'd use you as my personal mule. Stop being lazy and get ready."

"No." He rolled over in bed, pulling the covers more firmly over his face as he did so. Naruko,sighed, gripped the bed sheets, and flung him out of bed. He landed feet first, his body twisting as he flew and helping him land in the perfect position for a counter attack. His eyes were alert and all sleep flying from him mind.

"Good, you're awake, now go get ready."

He frowned at her, his obvious distaste of her tactics showing. God damn it, he just wanted to sleep.

"Give me a couple minutes." She left with his words, and begrudgingly he rolled out of bed.

Thirty minutes later he was `down stairs, his hair slick from his shower. Naruko grabbed him and the two headed out the door.

"Kaa-san gave me a list, were buying mostly groceries, but also some basic mission supplies for me and Mito."

Naruto sighed as he walked with her. His eyes staring sstraigh ahead and trying to avoid to looks that seemed to be piercing his body as he walked. He could hear the whispers as they huddled and gossiped. God, he hated this, he hated their looks, their stares, their whispers. It reminded him too much of his childhood, when the whispers weren't so kind, and the stare's weren't so...curious? Yes, when the stare's weren't so curios and held the malevolence and an entire villages hate behind them.

Naruko pulled on his arm suddenly dragging him into a store.

"Come on."

He followed her, a smiling at her enthusiasm. He liked Naruko, her can do attitude reminded him of his own childhood behavior and brought a smile to his face, as memories of simpler, but not quite nicer times filled his mind. She ran around the store, quickly picking up items before grabing him once more and dragging him into the street. Handing her bought items to him, forcing him into a position as a human mule.

As they began to walk again Naruto couldn't help but to notice Naruko's intense focus on his face. Her eyes squinted in concentration on his face. He raised an eyebrow, and she, recognizing his questions, spoke her mind.

"There's something wrong…"

"Not so much as something wrong, as a problem I have to overcome. A conundrum I have to solve in order to fulfil a promise to a close friend of mine."

"Close friends, you made a friend?"

Naruto laughed at her jib. He hadn't been out the house since his arriving here, he stayed close to the Uzumaki compound and it's inhabitants. He didn't want to go out and meet the faces of ghosts long dead, and perhaps just as important, he didn't want to go out and make new friends, only to have to say goodbye when he had to leave.

"No, when I came a friend came with me."

Realization dawned on her.

"You mean-,"

"Kurama has been with me all my life. And if I don't find a way to free him, will be with me until the day I die, and then die with me. It's something I don't wish to burden him with."

She was quiet for a moment, a look of concentration on her face as she walked. A pouty look forming as she walked.

"Hurry up and lets finish shopping, I'm sure Kaa-san wouldn't mind helping you. Her fuuinjutsu is crazy good. I think she may be better than Tou-san now that I think about it. Though, your fuuinjutsu pretty good too."

"You think she wouldn't mind?"

"Not if you explained everything to her. I'm sure she'd find whatever you're doing pretty interesting if even you can't figure it out. I've seen some of your seal work, and it's a whole 'nother level. I mean, your easily on Kaa-sans level."

Naruko grabbed him and headed off in a run.

"Come on, let's get home I'm sure Kaa-san would love to help."

xxxx-xxx-xxx

Once more, the Kyuubi stood before him. The demon, its great maw towering over him, smiled down at him. It's face wide and jubilant.

"**So, you've figured it out?"**

"I've been talking to Kushina. We've come up with a basic structure so far."

The demon laughed. It's great maw spreading wide, and its yellow eyes gleaming with delight.

"**You work fast."**

Naruto laughed. I had Kushina's help to write out the basic structure. Mainly the anchor seal, she helped Minato develop the Hairishin and apparently the anchor seal should function in the same way. Everything else though I will have to write on my own. Though theres some issues. The seal-script language commonly used doesn't allow what I have planned. And the Uzumaki seal script only allows for the basic. Modern seal script is too streamlined, too…specific and set to be used effectively. Uzumaki seal script is a bit better, a whole lot better but it's still not enough."

The demons closed its eyes, and mind world changed. It would seem not only Naruto had dominion of this realm, the grass beneath the beasts feet seemed to part, the wind picked up pace, and seemed to whisper in his ear. A strange tongue he had never heard before sung, its voice a beautiful sweet tone he had never knew existed. From the forest rushed a little fox kit, it seemed to be a mini Kurama.

In it's mouth it carried a scroll. Quickly it placed it before Naruto before turning around and disappearing into the vast forests the laid behind the great demon.

"**This scroll contains an old form of seal skirt. It's the language my father, the sage of six paths, used to seal the Kyuubi within himself. It's old and archaic, the rules binding it are strange and structured differently from what you are used two. The seals definitions are **_**meant **_**to be written vaguely, the script itself is based almost solely on space time manipulation, and is as closely tied to the foundation of existence as you can achieve. That scroll contains all I can remember, which is hopefully enough to allow you to do what you wish."**

Naruto opened the scroll, and started to read. He frowned as he looked at it. The rules by doing this was…strange to say the least. The basic fundamental symbols of the language were simple and strict, but as you built on the seal things got vaguer and vaguer. Seal functions were built on outlines of the sealing surface, or on different surfaces all together. They were then tied to the core seal with a call function, instead of being incorporated into the seal itself. Theoretically, he could call the writing seal functions with the call function as long as he tied the two together with a modifying tag function. It went against normal, or perhaps modern seal conventions.

"Good god. I thought you said this was vague?! This seal script can get overly complicated."

Kurama laughed, its great voice booming throughout their shared minds pace.

"**Its implantation is vague, its script is complex. I misspoke, you could say. But the seal script isn't the only obstacle to overcome. You must face your subconscious, learn to control this world if you want me to taste the fresh air for the first time in nineteen years."**

Naruto frowned. "I don't know how to do that."

The demons closed its eyes. It's breathing slow, and Naruto felt the breeze pick up once more.

"**This world is vast. Beyond the lake is another land. That land holds your memories, your fears, your hopes, your prejudices and dreams. You will face challenges getting there, and challenges while there. I don't know what you'll face, but if you succeeded…"**

"So…this land is your mind, you subconscious?"

"**I don't have a subconscious, a subconscious is a purely human construct. Behind me lays my mind, my memories, my consciousness." **

Naruto looked at the demon, turned around and looked at the edge of the forests, seeing the short shore, and the vast waters that lay beyond.

"**Don't die."**

"I can't, it's my mind."

"**You **_**can**_** and exactly for that reason."**

"Then I won't."

The sea fought him as he swam. He had started out running, sprinting across the great sea of water that represented his chakra. But the further he far the harder it came to run. The waters seemed to fight him, pulling and grabbing him as he ran, until finally running was impossible. So he fell into the water, and swam.

He swam like his life depended on it, his body sliced through the water, in clean swift movements, and fast deft strokes he swam. And the sea fought him. The further he swam the greater the sea seemed to fight. Once calm water turned violent as waves rose and smashed against him. Currents suddenly appeared ripping him from his path and tearing his body from its path.

The sea fought him, but he fought back. When the waves reached dozens of feet high he turned his body and drove through the waters. When the currents forcibly tore him from his path, he fought back, immediately going about his path. When storms seemed to be birthing overhead, their great expanse of grey raging storm clouds, and splitting forks of lightning thundering overhead.

Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity, he landed on shore. Gasping for breath and wheezing for air. He gasped, deeply, gripping the sand beneath him, even as the waves washed it from his hands. He turned around, and he gasped in shock at what he saw. It wasn't a forest like the one that surrounded Kurama. It was a vast field, a great wild prairie of grass and flowers, beyond which layed a mountain of seemingly insurmountable size.

"Fuck," he whispered.

Xxx-xxx-xxx

**This chapter like I said in my intro was supposed to be around 6k, but I got stuck at a writers block around 4k words and decided to cut it right around 3.5k and release it too you guys. My writters blocks can be a bitch to get over. This chapter was meant to start moving things into motion, Naruto starts to free the Kyuubi and want to get away from the wold he's in now. I talk about my view on fuinjutsu, and apply some simple programing logic involved. **

**The Kyuubi in my story is supposed to e Naruto's friend/ cold hearted truth giver. The kyuubi isn't human. He doesn't think human. He's anthropohmorphic meaning he had Human qualities, like being able to talk but other than that his entire view on the world is different. He's meant to be this third pary guiding force on Naruto. Someone who views his motives purely objectively because he doesn't view them through the eyes of human bias. **

**Questions & answers(I do read reviews, and even respond to pm's, don't be afriade to pm me.) **

**Questions!:**

**1)ShonenJump Guy: The story I am writing is not a Naruto Xover. In fact that story is likely going to be scrapped because while the first chapter is written I don't know where I could go with it. I do have something pretty great planned though. Somethig that itntrests me. Infact I might scrap my other stores except other worlds and what im working on to focus on those two. **

**2)Bad at battle scenes: A lot of people questioned me on this. Did you really think it was good? I didn't hink so. That could be because I imagined myself writing it better. Hmm…I might go back and rewirte that bit until it suits me. **

**3)hektols: You revieed every chapter? Well arnt you a champ. In reddit terms have an upvote. This story isn't exactly Naruto x naruko, they have a close relationship, but I the way I plan it is we…that's a spoiler. Read to find out. **

**4)Am: Misspelled words come from the fact that I write stupid fast. At around seventy words a minute I get some misspelled words. I go back and reread, to fix it, while also running it through a couple spell, and grammar checkers. I Infact I mention it in my beging authors note. I need a beta. Who wants to beta for me! You get to read my chapter updates early.**

**5)Jenny: Naruto's rank was Jounin with Kage prospects**

**6)imabbel: The Yondaime didn't learn anything in his time as office because he's busy. Look at the sandiame and the tishukage they spent most of their aldult lives running their villages. Yet they didn't show any growth. They relied on the same techniques while keeping their skills intact. Why fix what's not broken? Especially if your opponents end up dead before they even notice you 99 percent of the time? You bring up a good point though. **

**7)Duesal10: The mairrage thing is a loose idea at best. I might go back and retcon something better in. Don't worry, it doesn't play too big a roll in the story. Naruto's love for into is still there, hence the guilt he feels when he's attracted to Naruko. He's very much still in love with Ino, and that causes the guilt of attraction to Naruko. Kyuubi even call her out on it. **

**8)Everyonelse: Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Seriously fuck this chapter. This was a dirty son of a bitch to write. I'm sorry guys, this chapter gave me a writer's block I couldn't overcome. I started, deleted and restarted this piece of shit at least twelve time. Then the steam summer sale happened and I didn't even want to touch this, its just, why write when I had a shit tone of new games to buy and play? Well I finally managed to finish, I'm working on the next chapter of "The Waves of Time," and I'll start to write a new chapter for this story after a couple of days. Just…I need a break. The last part of this story was kinda shoe horned in because I couldn't think of a proper way to let that shit flow into the story, the first scene of this chapter took forever to write because I was trying to chall Philip K. Dick and the masterpiece that is "do androids dream of electric sheep." Anways this chapter is a mash of like two or three glued together because I just couldn't. This chapter also marks the end of arch 1. **

**The next arch will have a name, and its will be called:**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**The demon of the sands and world without sleep **

xxx-xxx-xxxx

The mountain loomed before, its vast imminence towering overhead forebodingly. The moon shone high overhead, and clear black sky made the distant white peaks of its summit loom before him. He cast his hands over his eyes, looking past the moon, and trying to gauge the total size of the mountain. Carefully he placed his foot on the mountain, and tried to use his chakra to climb laterally up the face of the mountain.

He fell back helplessly, landing on his ass as he did so. His eyes furrowed and he frowned in distaste.

"Why isn't shit ever easy for me?"

Carefully he tried to find a handhold on the face of the mountain, searching weakly, for his arms still ached from the swim.

"Yes." He proclaimed in victory.

He pulled himself up, dragging his body higher, his arms arching. He gasped in pain when he sliced his hand on a jagged, rock, but he held firm. He had to reach to summit. He had no idea what this mountain represented. Had no clue _why_ he had to ascend it, but he did. He _had _too. His body, his mind, his very soul demanded he climb. That he reach the summit, and plant his head in the snow, and look up at the sky from atop the world. To see the stars that shone so brightly, so luminously overhead. To understand what his mind hidden so zealously from itself.

So he climbed.

He climbed as the rocks became jagged, and every time he reached up and found a place to put his hands he found sharp jagged rocks, hard cutting stones that split open his hands and let blood, his life essence flow into the rock beneath him.

Only a quarter of the way there and the stones came. Harsh sharp rocks that pelted into his body as he climbed. Each one landing, and leaving a large welt in it's wake. Each one causing excruciating pain as he climbed. Every one bringing with it a memory he had long buried. Long forgotten.

_A boy, his hair matted wet, and his body shaking, he was cold to the bone. The rain poured overhead, and while he cold on the outside, his body burned with a promiscuous rage on the inside. He hated the Matron of the Orphanage. He hated the fact that she ignored him, the fact that she barely fed him, the fact that when the other kids hit him she told him "Stop lying, you little monster." He __**hated**__ her. A deep seething frothing hatred, that burned like nothing before, a hatred that spurred only anger, an anger so intense it __**demanded **__blood. As he stood in the rain, his eyes staring at the closed orphanage door, his eyes cast to the floor, his body cold and numb, he decided that day, that he'd kill her. _

The rock flew in, a torrential rain of small tiny stone as shard as razors, and large blunt stones that stuck like a hammer. He cast his eyes up, looking at the many stars, and the great white moon that dominated the sky. Casting its white light down upon him. He grimaced, and forced his way higher up the mountain. A large stone smacked into his head, and Naruto whipped back in reaction, he let go, and memory whispered its way into his mind.

_He stood alone in front of the academy, sad and afraid. He looked on in envy at the other children, all happy, all with family beaming with pride. _

A stone smacked into his head.

_Monster, beast, evil horrible demon. Little beast, no one loves you. _

His body jerked, forcing him back. His hands let go and he fell, his body dropping, falling through the air as he fell. For a moment his mind was blank, his body a hobble of useless flesh. A form without will, and command, just falling, the cool air touching and rushing past his body.

_I'm proud of you Naruto. _

He relapsed back, his hand jerking out on instinct and grabbing onto the mountain. He screamed when he felt his body jerk to a stop. His shoulder had been displaced, the tendons in his arm ripped from the jarring force. His hand had bed shredded and he felt the warm seeping blood of his life force dripping onto the mountains face.

_Jiraiya looked down at him, his face stern and demanding of rapt attention. He leaned back, against the tree, and took a long, deep breath. The heat of the mid noon sun singed Naruto's skin, but still, he was happy. _

"_Naruto…how well can you read."_

_His head was now aimed at the floor. The shame he felt in that instant, in that moment. Those words that burned with a heat and a passion into the debt's of his existence. He could read, but barely. One of his greatest shames. But how was he supposed to learn? No body had been willing to teach him when he'd desperately needed to learn. Then when people were willing to teach him, he was too proud, too… afraid to ask them. But Jairay had figured it out, Jiraiya knew…and so, he felt ashamed. _

"_No." Droplets of water touched the tree trunk. _

_Jairay was grim faced. "I'm sorry Naruto. Konoha has failed you," The big man had moved and now he had Naruto gripped in a tight loving hug. "I'm sorry," Naruto felt him shudder with remorse. _

He pulled up again, against the pain, against the torment. Up the mountain, higher and higher he climbed until, finally he felt his hands touch the cold, soft, yet gritty touch of snow. He climbed up, gave one last heave, and finally, in the face of a moon that loomed overhead like vengeful god. In the face of a night sky he remembered so clearly for it was the night sky he'd ask the woman who had won his heart -or perhaps stolen it from him- to marry him.

He collapsed in on himself. His breaths were ragged. His arms hurt, but slowy he stood. He walked forward, Just a couple more steps and he'd reach the peak. He stepped forward, and collapsed.

Then his life flashed before his eyes. Every moment, every thought, every action played before him _subjectively. _ He was a third parter watcher to his life, to his own thoughts. Then, it played again. A thousand times, a million times, a thousand million, billion time, over and over again. His life as others would have viewed it. He realized as each time his life flashed before his eyes, his own beliefs, his faults, his angers, his prejudices and beliefs. His own hypocrisy, and his own fears. The deep-seated, far reaching fears that he wouldn't even admit that he had.

It was strange, realizing what kind of person you were from others perspective.

Then it stopped. He looked up at the sky. The twilight had disappeared to be replaced instead by dusk. A moon and a sun loomed overhead. Twin peaks of brilliant light against a red, purple, and blue sky. Pinpoints of light lit up the sky along side the mood and the sun.

And it came to him, delivered to him like it had always been there. _It,_ bloomed in his mind.

He looked up, and smiled.

xxx-xxx-xxx

His eyes slowly opened to the noonday sun of konoha. With his reintroduction to the world, he felt the cool breeze flow past him, and into…his open wounds? He opened his eyes, and immediately closed them when blood flowed past his eyelid and into his eyes. He wiped the blood from his face, and slowly opened his eyes once more.

He looked down at his aching hands, they too were bleeding. .

"That's…interesting."

"**Quite unexpected."**

He stopped when he realized who's voice it was ringing through his head.

"**Hmm…This..is strange. I could see your memories second hand, but this is the first time I've seen you doing things, while you were doing things." **Naruto could practically feel the demon in his mind grinning in lee.

"_You're going to go out of your way to make my life a living hell from now on aren't you." _

"**What else is there to do, when even watchin you go through the motions of your life is no longer something for me to look forwards too. A hundred years of boredom, and suddenly I have a way to entertain myself, and keep myself entertained."**

Naruto sighed and stood up. His wounds had already started to heal, and in a few minutes, not even scars would be left.

He needed scrolls and ink. He walked into the Namikaze home wearily, his hands still bleeding even as his wounds closed. He found a scroll, and a well of ink along with some brushes. He rolled it out, made a hand sign to birth a clone and the two started the intricate seal work.

Four hours later the voice of the demon he'd spent his life with spoke once more.

"**That was fast."**

"The basics of it was already sketched out. I just had to fill in the details. After…well after _that, _I have an idea of what's going on in my mind scape, and all I had to do was write out the details."

"**Freedom….even in a limited form. I am….excited."**

Naruto smiled at the kyuubi's words before sitting down and stripping off his shirt. He laid back on his stomach and took slow calming breaths. His clone slowly started a long sequence of hand seals that seemed to go one forever. The seal on the scroll glowed a light blue, then, slowly started to unrivaled, and remove itself from the paper. After a few moments, the seal hung suspended in air, before slowly, and calmly being engraved into the seal already embossed onto his body.

It, meaning the seal, finished.

He wearily stood up. Carefully, and slowly in order to keep and maintain his balance. It was at that moment that Kushina decided to walk in. He cast a tired look towards her. She smiled a small smile at him and rushed to his side. Using herself as a prop to keep him balanced. She noted the new additions to his seal.

"You finished it…" She didn't know how to feel about that. She'd helped him, make the basics of the seal after talking about it with Minato. When they'd both green lighted it, she'd gone about helping him write the basics of the seal. She didn't think it would only take him a few days to figure out the more complex aspects of it though.

"Yes."

She was quite. In all truth's she was cautious and unsure about him summoning the demon. While Naruto trusted it, the same trust from her didn't quite extend to it in the same manner.

"But I need to rest first. Can you help me get to bed?"

"Of course." She slowly walked him to his room, and laid him down on his bed.

"Thanks…" She nodded and turned around as he dozed off to sleep.

xxx-xxx-xxx

Naruto dreamed.

The multiverse shuddered. The great amorphous mass of a million, million, _million _worlds shuddered, it shook, and rumbled. The deep seams that held it together, the tiny cosmic strings that made existence _exist_, slowly but surely unwound. From the void, from the darkest of darkness. From the blackest pits of nonexistence _it _slithered forward.

He whimpered, his mind reeling at his dreams. His body shuddering as things he shouldn't have known, shouldn't have understood slid towards him.

Massive, and yet so small. Eternal in length, inexhaustible in energy, it _slithered. _Where it touched, it unwound. Where it gaze met, it undid. Its maw was the knife that cut the strings of existence, its venom the acid that ate away at all it touched.

He groaned in his mind, and he shuddered.

Black eyes, infinitesimally black eyes, a deep all seeing black that touched at his soul, peered into his heart, viewed his deepest darkest secrets and _judged _him based on them. Eyes that glimmered with a level of assuredness that could only be achieved by something so absolute, so powerful, that it viewed the creatures beneath it not as lesser, but as mere troglodytes. Creatures so impossibly beneath them, they weren't worth even the most casual of glances.

He woke up in a silent scream, sweat pouring down his face, his heart racing in his cheats.

"**Naruto…" **The demons voiced sounded…worried. A strange new,

"The hell...I've never…I've never experienced anything like that before. My dreams are never quite so vivid."

"**That wasn't a dream that was a glimpse into the void, and a glimpse at its prisoner."**

Naruto sighed. He didn't feel like dealing with this right now. He rolled over and swung his legs onto the floor. Slowly he stood up, and stretched. He walked from his room to the second floor, casually taking a look out his window as he did so. It was late evening in konoha. He walked out his room, and down to the first floor of the Namikaze home.

He turned to the lounging forms of Mito laying about on the couch, and Naruko studying a scroll intently at a desk. Naruko noticed him as he walked into the room and cast a small smile towards him. She stood up, and walked towards him.

"Naruto-kun, you're awake. We were worried about you…Kaa-chan told me you completed the seal?"

"Yeah, it…it took a lot outa me to get it on"

"Are you going to…summon?" She searched for the right words. Before deciding to settle on summon. " Summon it?"

He laughed at her hesitation. He could understand them not trusting it, the bijuu were mysterious to those who didn't know anything about them, and that was more or less ninety nine percent of the world.

"Kurama, is, well he's more than just a beast. He's," Naruto stopped for a moment. His mind was searching for the right words to explain the relationship between the centuries old beast and himself. "He's a close friend, a part of myself I couldn't live without. Our relationship wasn't always biennial, but…but he's grown on me, and I on him. He's a close friend, someone I trust and believe in…someone who's more or less stuck with me for life."

Naruko nodded in understanding, and Naruto smiled in response. Mito chose that moment to speak up.

"You're summoning something?"

Naruto smiled at her, and nodded.

"Lets head outside. I want you to meet him."

"It's a him?""

Naruto stopped for a moment. " I think so, or at least it sounds like a him."

The three headed into the back of the Uzumaki home to their private training grounds. It had been restored after the fight between Minato and Naruto. Naruto smiled as he watched Mito run around in excitement.

He bit his thumb, ran the bloody hand across his bare stomach and then slammed his hand on the ground. He felt vertigo, like his body had suddenly inverted itself completely. A puff of white smoke surrounded him, and he felt…himself, yet not not himself.

The smoke cleared, in where it had once occupied, a large reddish orange fox now occupied the space. It looked around, and took a long deep breath. Then it spoke, and Naruto felt the echo of its voice in his mind, while he heard its speech in his ear.

"Air…sweet luscious air." Naruto smiled, bent down and placed his hand on the foxes head.

"It's not exact freedom but it's pretty close, I'll keep working on the seal until I can get it to where you want okay?"

"This," the demons voice was soft in its small body, yet large and dominating in his mind. Twin voice both speaking at the same time, the same tone, yet at different pitches and frequencies. "Is more than acceptable."

Kurma looked around, and slowly, steadily walked. Mito chose that moment to ask up to the fox and introduce herself.

"Hi!"

The fox walked up, slowly as it got accustomed to its new body, and smiled.

"Hello little one." It turned to Naruko. "And hello to you, Naruko-chan." It smiled, or at least the closest approximation to a smile it could manage to muster.

Naruko bent down and shook its paw. "Hello, Kurma-san, Naruto has told me a lot about you."

"The air tastes sweet," it stopped for a moment. "I'd long forgotten how the air tasted. Naruto, thank you."

"I made a promise Kurama, I keep my promises."

The fox looked at the gathered shinobi. "I'm going exploring, is that okay."

Naruko nodded. "The Namikaze grounds are decently sized. We got clan lands when Tou-chan made Kage, and a fifth of it has been cleared for homes and further expansion. The rest is still wooded and better yet it's guarded by warding seals. You can explore as much as you want."

The demons rushed off, laughing as it did so. Freedom tasted good to it.

"So…" With the fox now gone, an awkward silence had settled between them. Naruko hadn't expected the demon to be so….normal. Yes, it seemed like any other person, which from a beast with the power to raze the entirety of Konoha seemed serine.

"I'm thinking of leaving…" Mito and Naruko turned to Naruto. Surprise on their face. The past few months with Naruto had been fun, and entertaining, he'd become a part of their life, and while without him life would go on, the feeling of loss would last for years.

"Like to another village?" Mito's voice chimed in.

"No, no…not that. I'm thinking of taking my chances and trying for another world."

"You don't like it here?" It was Naruko who spoke now. Her voice was quite.

"It's not that, it's, it's too quiet. To peaceful, its…I'm used to fighting, to working for something. To trying to help people. Here I'm just…I'm not doing much of anything. I feel useless, restless, I _need _to be doing something."

"Do you have to go?"

"I don't even know if I can." He sat down on the green grass and watched the falling sun. "I think I can do it using Fuuin-jutsu, the seal language is used to free the Kurma _should _let me do it but… it won't be easy, and even with clones it'll take a couple weeks, its not like i'm leaving tonight."

"Have you talked to Kaa-chan and Tou-san?"

"No, not yet. But I plan on talking to them tonight. I know you guys have invested a lot in…integrating me into Konoha, and I appreciate it, it's just…this isn't my Konoha, and the people that sacrificed themselves in my world, but are happy and alive _here_ it's too much for me to handle. Besides I won't just be leaving, I'll be leaving something behind to cover my tracks…do you know what blood clones are?"

"Kaa-chan told me about the, but only a little she said they were exact copies of the creator. But, she didn't tell me much more."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Blood clone are exact clone, their genetic, physical copies grown from the blood and chakra of the user. The chakra required is insane, so much so that the Uzumaki clan banned it after it killed nearly a dozen people who attempted it. The seal copies the memories of the user into clone. You get a literal clone of the user, an actual living breathing clone, self-sustaining, and alive…."

"You're going to leave us a blood clone."

"If I just disappeared it would cause problems for you guys, I, personally just can't…I just can't do it. I can't stay here. It's that simple."

Silence fell over the gathered Uzumaki-Namikaze clan.

"Can I come with you?"

"What?" The question was asked in surprised by both Mito and Naruto. The skies had faded to a deep purple. And the Uzumaki now lay on their backs. The air was chilling, and the faintest twinkles of stars had started to appear. The slowly cooling air tingled on their skins.

"Can I come with you?"

"You can't leave me too Nii-chan!"

"Why would you ever want to go with me? I don't know where I'm going, or if I'll even survive if getting there. Besides going with me is a one-way trip. I talked to the Kyuubi you go to one world, you make a jump, and that it. No going back. I cant go back home…but I think theres somewhere out there I could help you know. Somewhere out there where I could make all the sacrifices my friends made mean something."

"I haven't done anything with my life. I've always been cuddled, and my life so…so normal. Boring, just bland. I mean, being a ninja is exciting, but…its not enough you know. I feel like there's more out there for me, and I won't be able to do anything here. I didn't realize it until you came along."

"Well you can't go." Silence fell over them again.

"And why not?"

"You can't make a blood clone. Your chakra levels are like a flame to my inferno. And even with my monstrous stores it still takes a whole lot more than it has any right to make a single blood clone. You are literally using blood and pure energy to create another being. You just had done have enough chakra. Besides Minato and Kushina are your parents…they love you would you just leave them like that? Disappear in the wind with someone you've only know for a couple months?"

"You can figure something out. You've got more than enough chakra for the both of us."

Naruto laughed. Then he smiled a broad wide smile.

"We'll have to talk to Minato and Kushina to get their opinions, see what they say about you leaving with some boy." Naruto smiled at his own jest and Naruko slugged him in the arm.

"Yeah, like they won't say anything about you just up and leaving…"

"I'm not just leaving, I'm leaving a blood clone."

"But it's not you."

He turned to her. His face serious, and yet soft and warm. His voice too was soft, and he spoke slowly and clearly.

"It's me. All my memories in a living, breathing, genetically identical version of me."

He sighed and slowly pushed himself to his feet. It was dark now, the sun having set while the three were talking. Out of the woods came the Kyuubi, its large fox form, slipping from the dark woods like the predator it was. Blood was on it's teeth and it carried a rabbit in its maw.

"Have fun?" It set the rabbit down and began to indulge itself.

"Yes."

Naruto stretched and offered a hand to Naruko then Mito, after helping both of them up they all headed into the Namikaze-Uzumaki home to await Minato and Kushina.

Xxx-xxx-xxxx

"You plan on leaving?"

Minato and Kushina sat at a table with Naruko and Naruto. The two blonds and redheads staring across at one another.

"I'll be leaving a blood clone…"

Kushina was quite as she watched the blond, she'd come to enjoy his presence, and his company over the past couple of months. She'd always wondered what it would have been like to have a son and while the boy hadn't directly played into the roll as she had expected he'd been a nice addition to their family. Even if he was leaving behind a proxy of himself when she left, she would still feel loss when he left. She didn't know exactly what she'd expected from the blond boy…no man, she had to correct herself. The blond before her was a man, and had been for a long, long time.

She didn't know how she felt about the whole thing, her emotions were just one giant hog posh of a mess at this point and time.

Minto was in the same boat as well.

The room was silent and the pregnant pause of uncomfortable, unspoken feelings filled the room. Naruto's face was sullen, and Naruko's face was carry much the same look. The Kyuubi laid in a corner, still eating the remnants of its hunt.

"You humans are so humorous, your emotions so blatantly cloud your mind."

Minato and Kushina both turned to the fox, it was hard to imagine the beast that had escaped Kushina years before, the same beast that the Sandaime had forcefully dragged to the debts of the shinigami's belly, was the same beast that lay in a corner of their kitchen, slowly enjoying a rabbit it had caught less than an hour before.

"Kurama…" Naruto could tell how uncomfortable the others in the room were slowly becoming. He was used to the beasts straightforward if misguided honesty.

"Naruto is a grown man, he's faced monsters at the age of thirteen, all his life as a ninja has been one of conflict. More so than any other, as not many ninja have a constant parade of your kinds strongest going after him. For Naruto...peace…is nice. But too much of it and his skin starts to crawl. He's looking for a place to go and be welcome. Naruko, is looking for adventure, a meaning to her life, as your kids youth is wont to do."

"Naruko…Naruto…are you two sure about this?" Kushina's voice quivered, even if they left blood clones, she would always know…

"Yes." They said in unison.

Kushina sighed, and Minato nodded in understanding. "About the blood clone….

xxxx-xxx-xxxx

**I hinted at some future elements in the story. So time for some things, some people left the story because I hinted at incest….I don't know how you picked that up…? Whatever, sad to see you go I guess…Other people still like and read this so one or two folks ain't too much of a loss. Just gota work harder to make those people that do still read happy. **

**Now some things you might want clarified:**

**1: The mountain, well it's a metaphor. A big fucking, kind of obvious metaphor, and if you've read "do androids dream of electric sheep,(note this is the book blade runner is based on!)" then you get it. If you haven't then the routine is a metaphorical representation of Naruto rising through the torment and abuse of his own memories and biases, of his own, emotions and suppressed feeling, to achieve true piece internally. There, no one should be confused now. **

**2: This story is going to a be a Naruto and Naruko story. I alleyways planned that, and that's how its going to be. This world's arch is over, there's no coming back…or is there? :P**

**3: I think I should have developed Mito's character more, I might do it retcon style and just build up her personality in talks between Naruto and Naruko. **

**4. Its done! Finally, I'm off to the gym, I need ot burn off steam after this bullshit story, ill post it when I get back. **

**5) Jairaya didn't play much of a roll in this arch, but next arch he's a major player, so be on the lookout. **


	8. Chapter 8: Arch 2

**What, what! Who's working on another chapter? I'm starting this early due to what the overwhelming response I got on the last chapter. I go away from the internet for a couple hours and I come back to my Gmail updates folder filled with over two hundred notifications, some even spilt over into my other story "the waves of time." Good god, it's glorious. I'd like to thank you all, and I'll start by writing this chapter a few days earlier than I planned. **

**Edit: I found out why, thank you very much Dorcyy. I favorited and follow you story, and I never imagined you would read one of my stories. Thank you very much for letting people know this and my other story "the waves of time" exist. I appreciate it greatly**

**Some of you question the validity of Naruto just walking away, and taking Naruko with him, and Kushina and Minatos willingness to just let her go. Truthfully, I don't like it either, but that chapter was a bastard to write, and I needed something to finish it up, or I'd go crazy. Don't worry, I'll go back when I have free time and fix that up so it makes sense. Maybe in a month or two. And as for spelling mistakes….well, I need a beta, and whoever offers to do it will get to read my chapters early and be my friend…so…who wants to do it? **

**On a side note, I read every review. Every single one I've read. Hell I even reply to pm's when I have the time. Review with the knowledge that it will be read. That's right bakapervert I read your reviews, and you hit the nail on the head with some of my issues with chapter seven, though I have more than I'm willing to admit. Issues I plan on fixing later when I have free time, starting this school year Im not sure if ill have anytime to write at all, so im trying to get as many chapters out for you guys as I can. **

**So let's begin…..**

**xxxx-xxx-xxx-Arch 2: The demon of the sands and the world without sleep-xxx-xxx-xxx**

The world obeyed. The seal light like a small sun, and the world obeyed.

The winds blew harsh and terrible, the sky turned dark as clouds as black and dark as night moved in, the air was filled with chakra, heavy and palpable. Naruto and Naruko sat in the center of incomprehensibly complex seals, pools of blood beneath both of them, nature chakra poured form the sky's and into Naruto as he acted as a catalyst. Forming a single point in which to pull and harness the energy necessary to complete his tasks at hand. His eyes were closed, and his body nude, blood red hair swaying in the harsh wind as his mind focused on funneling emery into the seal. Gathering nature chakra was easier for him, far, far easier, but that didn't mean all danger was gone. In fact, perhaps there was more danger now than ever, so he kept his eyes closed, and his mind clear. The seals did all the work, and he gathered the energy, all so the world would obey.

And the world did. It obeyed, it bowed to the will of one man, it poured its energy, its might into one precarious place on earth, and it brought with it the turbulent energy of a storm that was powered by the very life force of an entire world. Lighting struck overhead, illuminating the two and their watchers from afar. The seals moved, slowly, carefully dragging themselves across the ground, into the pools of blood and onto the two bodies that lay in their centers.

Lighting struck, landing closer and closer to the two. The world obeyed, _but defiantly_. It fought back, for every inch of progress made a thousand miles of progress had first had to have been won over. The seals beneath them moved, faster, picking up pace and flitting across them, running and dancing within the matrix that had been created to contain them. The great seals moved, they flared their power, fueled by the might of a million, million, living beings.

The clouds collapsed in on themselves, forming a void, the blood beneath them shimmered, and it _gleamed_ in the sunlight, and from the depths of nothing, from the black void in the sky a million, million, _million _stars loomed overhead. Streams of pink and blue, clouds of bright vapor, a nursery of worlds slowly being born. And beyond that, he could glimpse it, a beast of infinite size, of incomprehensible power, more powerful than the juubi, more powerful than he could fathom with his small, small mind, and he could see _it. _A word whispered into his mind, _**Ouroboros,**_ and Uzumaki Naruto gasped. His twin pools of deep, deep blue flickering open to see with his eyes, what he had glimpsed with his mind.

The blood beneath him slanted, and ran. Shifting and coming alive like no other, slowly, slowly. The seals lit up. They blared, this new living thing controlling the world, and finally they acted. The rip in the seam of the sky shrank, it pulled on the two people in the center, in a blink-no in less than a blink of an eye- and it was over. Two nude bodies lay on the ground, perfect copies of their originators, and where the original once sat, there was nothing.

In the dark, in the void, nothing made sense. You didn't feel, you didn't hear, and even if you had glimpsed it from the outside, even if you had seen those million, million worlds, you saw nothing. Just blackness, and with no sound.

xxx-xxx-xxx

"There's someone in my desert." The statement was one of fact, perfect and simple, words made by a man who was absolutely sure in his status and position. One who knew his domain and ruled it like a god. The demon of the desert sat perfectly still atop the walls that protected his village. His watcher, a tall man with snow white hair and long red marking beneath his eyes, sat atop the wall as well. The hot desert air stagnated between the two men, and silence fell between them.

"Gaara, your senses extend to the border?"

Brown eyes turned to the sage, and an emotionless face stared for a seeming eternity. The sand on the wall shifted, and tiny grains slowly started to shift into the air. The demon of the desert didn't show emotions, but his sand told others how he felt. He was agitated, the sand around him shifted and moved, it twisted and slunk on the ground like a snake hunting for a meal.

"No, they just appeared. Suddenly, without any indication…Someone is in my desert."

"Gaara…"

"I'm going to go kill them." Again, another statement of fact.

"Gaara, you can't do that. It's not safe, we fell back to Suna because the desert offers better protection. Iwa, Kumo, _and them,_ can't cross the desert without you knowing, the desert isn't hospitable and with you acting as sentinel guard they won't even attempt to cross. If you go every time you even so much as sense something that...angers you, you'll eventually get killed."

"I am not angry. I am displeased, someone is in my desert. I will kill them, to enter my desert is death. " The demon of the sand stood up, and the section of the wall he sat on coalesced to form the container of sand he kept on his always. He moved forward, a platform of sand supporting his weight and allowing him to gaze out upon his domain.

"Gaara, I can't allow you to go out on your own."

The red haired man looked back. Dull brown eyes watching, studying the toad sage. If the demon of the sand had had any other choice, or option he would have killed this man. But debts between brothers of circumstance had to be honored, at least in his mind, and there was no greater circumstance than being cursed with the same fate. A dead brother in circumstance, and a promise made to said brother, a promise he kept out of love of said brother. The only person the demon had cared about.

"Then come. I will be leaving with, or without you. Those who enter my desert die, it should be known by now. Come now sage, I will leave, if you truly care then follow. Or wallow here in your memories."

The sand shifted, and slowly started to drift away, taking with it the demon of the sands. Reluctantly the toad sage followed. He dropped down the wall, and quickly ran to keep pace with the holder of the ichibi. He sighed a deep sigh as he ran to keep up.

"Gaara, do we have to do this?"

"Death to all who enter my world of sand. Death to all who claim a right to the shinobi nations. Uzumaki Naruto had a dream…and we will fulfill it."

"Gaara I doubt Naruto's dream was this, were stuck in suna, hiding in the deserts because we can't move. We need a way to strike at Iwa and Kumo at the same time. We need to find a way to cull the cultists. Gorilla warfare and hiding in the deserts isn't what he had in mind…"

"Uzumaki Naruto was a visionary, he saw a way to peace, when he died…" The demon of the sands was quite. "When he died he tasked me with ensuring his dreams come true. His true dreams not the abomination that the cultist say was his dream. I was not the only one to believe in this dream, though I seem to be the only one amongst us who wishes to see it accomplished."

"Gaara, we all wish to see Naruto's dreams come true it's just…"

"It's just that you have other things that preoccupy you. Your village fell, you worry for your people, betrayers and backstabbers that they are."

"My village-"

"Your village is a traitorous bunch, why he loved them so much, why he cared so much….I do not know, I understand that it is beyond me to understand fully. I…I am an incomplete man. I am broken, I was weak where Uzumaki Naruto was strong, and…surprisingly I stayed alive for it."

Jiraiya sighed deeply. They'd spoken on this, dozens and dozens of time. Konoha had done a disservice to Uzumaki Naruto, and in her time of need she had suffered for it. Those who had survived her sacking now lived within the walls of Suna. Fire country was gone, its daimyo killed and its land partitioned between Iwa and Kumo. All the while the world seemed to hate Konoha, hate it for its slight against Uzumaki Naruto. Hate it for the death of a "prophet." Of a god.

"Naruto wasn't a prophet he was mad, Gaara. Insane, what Konoha did was…terrible, horrible, that's a known fact. But it had to be done. It _had_ to occur."

"He was only mad because he wasn't loved. At least in Konoha, _your _hatred, _your _spite turned his message of peace into one of madness. _Your _irrationality into-."

"He wanted to start another shinobi war! He planned subterfuge, he was raising an army! Were we just supposed to let that go? Were we just supposed to let him do whatever the hell he wanted just because he had 'good intentions'? Gaara, I was there, I watched them do it. God damn it I had to stand by while they did it! He was my student and I loved the boy like a son-."

Vicious eyes turned towards him. The desert sands shifted and the dunes seemed to come alive. Yellow and gold iris bore down on him. "Yet you let them kill him!" The desert exploded behind him, shuddering beneath the might of the demon of the sands. "Let them extinguish the life of the one person that understood me like the wayward wind kills the flames of a candle, long, long before it can become an inferno. Do you know why I haven't killed you Jiraya?"

"You couldn't, you're not skilled enough."

Gaara laughed, it was a dry hoarse thing. It seemed unnatural on the normally emotionless boy. Unbefitting of someone whose face never moved, and remained stoic and impassioned at all times. The winds of dessert blew, flapping Gaara's clothing in the breeze. Those golden eyes bore down at the toad sage. Hatred barely kept in check lurking behind them, it was powerful, potent, a primal hatred that burned with a passion so _deep _so fierce it could never be kept in check. The desert came alive, the sand picked up and swirled, gripping onto his body, squeezing and pressing onto his body. It hurt, and he could feel the pain deep deep, deep into his bones.

"I could. I _am _skilled enough. You forget your place sage, this is _my _desert, _my _village that holds the remnants of your little village, and it is _me _who saved your lives that day. Your powerful, you're skilled, but here, in the desert _I _am god. In the desert _I _am absolute. I can kill you, right here and now. But I _haven't _because, for whatever god awful reason he cared about you. For whatever stupid fucking reason he liked you. That's it. The only reason you aren't dead, the only reason I let the Konoha refugees stay in my village, is because of him."

The sand slipped away, falling back into the desert. Silence fell as the harsh sun overhead shone and the two men picked up a faster pace.

"This chakra…its familiar. Move faster sage. I'm interested."

Jiraiya followed.

The world couldn't sleep, well it could, but it couldn't sleep _peacefully. _Since the death of the nine tailed Fox's host oh so many years before the world had been denied a peaceful sleep. On that day, standing before all of Konoha the blond haired, blue eyed, 'prophet' had looked upon the thousands and thousands of faces. He'd looked and he'd smiled. Only sixteen years old his sky blue eyes had turned a deep, deep grey blue. His rounded pupils had slit, and his voice had boomed over the crowd a thousand times over, those eyes and that voice had damned the world.

"_As I go to an eternal sleep, I rob sleep from you. Out of love, not hatred I do this."_ His chakra had flared, a pillar of power and potent energy that had pierced the clouds and spread, a potent mix of his own and demon's that dwelt within him. The blade came down too late, he had cast his jutsu, and so in an instant the world had been damned. Nightmares now plagued the entire world as they slept, and so, the world didn't sleep.

Sabaku no Gaara had seen the body of Uzumaki Naruto after his death. His skin had been cold and grey, the sheen and luster in his hair had faded, and those eyes that had once starred with such _passion_ were now dull, and life lifeless. Seeing the one person he'd cared about dead, seeing the one person he had ever loved, the one person who had ever cared about him, laying cold and motionless on a metal rack…it, the memory that is, was burned into his mind.

So he knew the face he now stared down at shouldn't have been the face he'd seen all the years before. Yet it was, and Gaara didn't know how to feel.

"Gaara…we should go back. It's obvious that's an imposter."

Gaara knew it wasn't. This boy, no man, the person before him had the distinct features of a man, _was _Uzumaki Naruto. He could feel the faintest traces of the Kyuubi's chakra, coursing through the boy. It was Uzumaki Naruto, he knew it like no other,

"It isn't."

"Gaara.."

"It isn't! This is Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Gaara, he barely looks a day over twenty. If this was Naruto he should look at least twenty five by now. And look at her!" He pointed to the red headed woman besides the man. Both lay unconscious, unmoving and barely breathing. Their lips were dry from the desert, and they sweated profusely as their bodies attempted to cool their unconscious forms.

The demon of the sands looked back at the sage. "I can sense the Kyuubi, this is Uzumaki Naruto. We _will_ return with them to suna. We will question them, and if the answers suit us…we'll let them live. If it does not…my sand always thirsts for more blood." The sand slink slowly and carefully, far more carefully than should have been possible for the redhead, picked up the two prone forms.

They ran back to suna, and snuck the two into one of the man secret caverns carved into the rock beneath the village.

With only candle light as a source to see, Sabaku no Gaara watched Uzumaki Naruto. This was Naruto, he could tell and yet…it was not. His hands came forward, slowly and carefully, and he ran his fingers through the strands of red. He looked at the red headed woman and did the same. She too, felt like Uzumaki Naruto. He frowned, a rarity for he rarely showed emotion, and sat down. The candle flames continued to cast their low, low light, and Gaara continued to wait patiently. He'd be here to speak to them when they woke, and kill them if they angered him, even if they felt like Uzumaki Naruto.

xxx-xxx-xx

Naruto woke up. His body feebly came to life. Blue eyes opened and looked out only to see dark. He sighed.

"Who are you, what are you, and who do you work for?"

Naruto turned and looked towards the all too familiar voice. He suppressed a smile. He knew that voice, Gaara…

"Uzumaki Arashi…"

He felt sand slink across the bed he was resting on. He'd almost forgotten about the sand.

"Don't lie, you are Uzumaki Naruto, yet Uzumaki Naruto is dead. So…tell me, what are you, and who do you work for?"

"…" He remained silent. He didn't know what was going on in this world, but he was interested now.

"I'm Uzumaki Arashi...and it's a long story." So he spoke, he told Gaara of his original world. Of his Madara, and Obito, and the Juubi. He told the demon of the sands about the other world, and the Namikaze-Uzumaki family. He told him about the Kyuubi, and opening the void again to look for a world where he could do something that mattered. And all the while the demon of the sands stayed silent. Listening in. Judging the words for a worth he deemed appropriate.

When it was over the demon of the sands laughed. And then, he did something he'd only done once before, and only with one person before-the same person if you wanted to get into semantic. He smiled. A small, barely noticeable thing in the dark room, but still he smiled. And Naruto smiled back.

"I believe you."

"Can you tell me what happened here?"

"Of course." Gaara's voice was calm. His eyes alert.

"It started twelve years ago at the valley of the end. You, at least, this world's version of you killed Uchiha Sasuke. I found you moments after that fight staring down at your hands, his blood pooling beneath you, your hands were painted red with his life. It was…strange, beautiful, ironic, it had done something to you. Broken you in some way, having killed Uchiha Sasuke, you looked up at me and your eyes, they'd, and they'd changed. Something….something had happened to you, you'd you had broken something, something inside you. You looked at me, and said '_Gaara, did you see that? I…I saw it. I saw the future when I killed him, I saw the world Gaara…and…and…' _you didn't get to finish before Kakashi Hatake found us. That would be the last time I would see you for a year and a half. After that you went on a training trip with Jiraiya, half way through you would appear before me. You snuck into suna somehow, and entered into my room. You looked, tired, weak, sickly and frantic. You were rambling, speaking fast and furious about time, about seeing, and hearing, and glimpsing destruction. You sounded mad."

Gaara smiled.

"But at the same time, you sounded that you were sure. Absolute in what you say. In what you'd seen in your visions. You spoke to me all night, you talked about your plan to _'save the world'_ you were going to raise an army, tear down the ninja system, and replace it with one that wouldn't lead to nothing more than destruction and death. You, by which I mean all Uzumaki Naruto's, seem to have one thing in common, you can make people believe in the impossible and follow you. That night you made me believe…somehow…"

"What happened next?" A soft female voice spoke up, and Arashi turned his head, it was Naruko. She'd just woken up.

"You started to convince the world to see things the way you did. A year later and most of the smaller nations were following you. Believing in you. You were considered a prophet, a bringer of peace and prosperity, you were raising an army. The big five didn't take notice, not until you managed to take Kiri. Once Kiri became part of you army, part of you "United Front" you became dangerous. And Kumo and Iwa demanded your head from Konoha. They caved, and gave it. They followed you, found in what used to be the land of waterfalls and took you captive. They executed you a few months later."

Gaara became deathly silent. "Jiraiya told me about it. He told me about you, standing there, before the executioner's blade. A wide grin on your face, seals and chains holding you down. And smiling, smiling, _smiling. _Then you cursed the world, did something and robbed the world of sleep." Gaara laughed. "Sleep is rare here, you can't sleep when nightmares haunt your dreams, when your deepest fears are used against you as you sleep. At least, that's what Jiraiya has told me."

Gaara took another deep breath.

"Your followers….they, they went mad. You became a martyr and an army twice the size of any of the other elemental nations marched on Konoha, and burned it to the ground, and took your body. The survivors of the sacking of Konoha spread to the elemental nations, most came to Suna. The years following that…you became…a deity. A god in their eyes, someone who was incomprehensibly innocent, someone in-corruptible, someone perfect. Someone who'd faced the worst hardships of life and had come out a deity for it. They took your dream, your name, _your vision, _and corrupted it. Twisted it into a horrible, twisted thing. Their cult religion, seeking to wipe out all the elemental nations, turning everyone into mindless drone. All the while Kumo and Iwa strike out, taking the lands of Konoha and fire country, trying to stop the advance of your fanatics. Suna on the other hand, we hide out in the desert. For the past nine or so years, we've stayed in the desert, sending nin out to gather resources or guard precious trade routes. "

The room was quite. Naruto and Naruko speechless. Their minds reeled at the information Gaara had just dumped on them. All the while, the candles slowly flickered in the darkness.

**xxx-xxx-xxx**

**Chapter done! I've got a beta and I'll start using em next chapter, I'm kind of excited and will release this chapter today. I got an awesome response last time and I've finally managed to break the 100 word review barrier. I want a thousand next. How did you guys like this chapter. I'm really excited for this arch, I'm planning on introducing some exciting stuff. Gaara and Jairaya play and interesting dynamic I love. Im going to ask my beta if they wouldn't mind helping me with my older chapters to this story. **

**A surprise for you! I made other worlds and some of you liked it, I'm looking to make something else though, tell me what you think. It should be in my new story "casual dreams." It's filled with nothing but one shots and ideas that go nowhere. It's also where I'll be trying out new writing ideas and what not. Take a look. **


	9. Arch two:Chapter 2

**So...this chapter is short...way, way, way short Like 2k words short. IM sorry for that, but it was either release this or not release for the next few months and im not comfortable with that. Schools started for me and im busy all the damn time. I go to a collage prep school so i don't really have a choice in the matter. So I have a choice for you guys, you can wait a month or two and have me release my long normal 3.5k chapters, or i can release more short chapters like this chapter here. Remember tell me in reiveiws, if you don't i wont really know what you want and ill assume you want the long month or two updates and do those instead. so...yeah...do what you think and review. Thats it i guess. **

xxxx-xxx-xxx

The glorious god shined down upon Diaki. His vibrant energy made this day great. The skies were as blue as his eyes were said to have once been. He smiled, god bless, for he was happy. Today was the _day. _The glorious day upon which the god had first come to him nearly ten years before when Daiki had been but a boy, just a few years younger than the god. At thirteen Diaki had been poor, dirty, weak and starving on the streets of Kiri. The civil war in Kiri had ravaged his town, like it had ravaged many others, and like many other Diaki had been starving. But unlike many others Diaki had met the god, even now, he remembered it. The day was cloudy, and dark, the mist was thick, and Daiki was so, so hungry. He stomach gurgled, and he was too weak to move. His belly was bloated from the hunger, his arms and body was nothing but skin and bones.

The hunger had been all he had known. To Diaki hunger had been a constant companion. A faithful friend who never left his side. Hunger was there in the mornings when he woke. There in the nights when he shivered in the back alleys, hidden where the predators that preyed on children couldn't find him. Hunger was there when it rained, when it snowed, when the sun shined above head with its mocking, deep vivid blue. For most of his life all Diaki had known was hardship, scrounging, and hunger.

Then _He_ had arrived.

When he came it was a misty day. A fog so thick, so potent that sight was impossible. A deep grey mist that Diaki had only seen once or twice before in his short life. Then Diaki heard it, footsteps, soft and quite, yet loud and echoing. He sang, a soft tune that hung on the wind. When he moved the mist dissipated and the sun seemed to beam down gloriously. Placing a halo of light around his head, then he'd smiled down at him, a wide toothed smile that seemed to have an impossible wonderful force behind it. Those blue eyes had _looked _into Daiki's soul. He held out food, a bowl of sleep, that he slowly feed him, to Diaki who at the time couldn't remember the last time he ate, it was the best food he'd ever eaten in his life. It was still the best food he'd ever eaten, not in taste, but in quality and worth.

It was glorious, the smooth, salty and yet somehow sweet broth. The god, or the prophet before he had ascended if that was your point of view, had then picked him up, feebly, and carefully and carried him in his arms and delivered him back to his followers, his believers had then looked upon him, and taken care of him like family. They'd converted him, changed him, and told him about the god, about him saving entire countries before he was even thirteen years old. About the god's childhood, about his love for the people, about his visions for a wonderful peaceful world without war, without hunger. It changed Diaki, it turned his life around.

He continued his walk as he moved about. The god's temple was in the center of town, a visible, yet humble place, made out of stones hauled by hand from a quarry not too far from their town. He went into the small, open building, and smiled at the statue of the god. He looked upon it, the smiling face, with its hands wide welcoming, and inviting. Diaki sat to meditate beneath it, it was said that one could communicate with the god, hear the sweet melodic tones of his voice beneath the stone manifestation of him. Diaki believed this, and _he had_ hear the voices of the god in his ear. After spending days, sitting there, unmoving denying his body of its bases needs the gods voice whispered into his mind.

"_Diaki…" _

He gasped as It echoed throughout his mind. Speaking to the god was always a glorious experience. His voice sang in his mind.

"_Diaki…A false prophet comes…"_

Daichi's body started to sway, his body moving right and left, forward and back as he slowly entered a trance. He started to mumble, incoherent words trailing from his lips, as the swaying increased. It was _ecstasy _to be with the god. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, he bit into his tongue and he felt the deep red ichor of his blood flowing into his mouth. The taste of iron was nothing as the blood flowed down his mouth and dribbled on his chin. To hear _his_ voice in your mind, and with _his _voice came his presence, to experience both of them, to feel both of them…it was…indescribable. Something he wished he could experience every day.

" _A false prophet comes..." _

Xxx-xxx-xxx

The deserts wind blew.

The two Uzumaki, and Sabaku no Gaara sat about doing nothing but watching the setting sun. They sat atop the wall of suna, overlooking the vast desert the protected her and her peoples. The silence for the men was one of ease, but Uzumaki Naruko who had never met Gaara in her world felt uncomfortable.

"Gaara..." She turned her head to the voice of Naruto. It sounded soft, and tired. Though she could understand, she, without a doubt like him was exhausted. The void made you weak, and it would take a few days for them all to recover.

She sat in silence and waited for the reply of the Demon of the sands. It was hard to imagine that the man before her, the man, that seemed to be so quite, so vicious was one of Naruto's closest friends.

"Naruto...we'll have to keep you hidden you know that?"

"I know..."

"They consider you a god, a force of nature. If you were to suddenly reappear..."

"It wouldn't be good." Naruko finished Gaara's words. She watched as his sea green eyes landed on her. They roved her body, sized her up, then switched back to her male counterpart.

The air was dry.

The air was dry and the sky's overhead were a vibrant, vivid blue shifting slowly to an even deeper purple. A deep rich shade only possible in a place where clouds never were, and the sand was as vast as a sea. Naruko breathed it in slowly, carefully. Savoring it, she'd been to Suna before, when she was a child and her father had gone to meet with the Kazekage. The tiny glimmer of an endless expanse of stars peeked out at her. She loved the air here, it was dry and crisp.

She turned when Naruto spoke.

"I need to find out what happened."

"What?" She found herself suddenly speaking.

"I need to find out what happened. Why I ended up, doing what I did. I mean...I had to have a reason. I need to know..."

"Ask your perverted teacher." Gaara stood up, and stretched. The sand moved beneath him, shifting to form a platform for him to stand. "I'll be back."

As Gara moved to find Jiraiya, Naruko turned to Naruto. A look of confusion on her face.

"You have to find out what happened?"

Naruto frowned as he looked at Naruko. How to explain how he felt? How to communicate to her what he had experienced in his own mind? How he'd climbed the mountain of his subconscious, been stoned with the stones of his faults, his issues. Had his fears and doubts, his regrets, his failures and triumphs all thrown at him? How he'd swam in a troubled turbulent sea that was his own, mind, his own thoughts? How was he to communicate that he'd literally faced an entire world that was against him, and that world _was _him. And that he had triumphed against himself! How?

He couldn't he realized.

She'd have to experience it herself to understand. She'd have to see the endless stars in his mind to understand what he now did. To understand what he could have become. How close he'd been to going insane so many times, how ashamed he'd been to be himself. Naruko wouldn't be able to understand, not yet. But he could try.

So, with a sigh he responded. "Yes, I _need _to know. I want to help here. I didn't cause this world to fall to ruin, but a version of me did. I want to help, I'm _going _to help fix this, but first I _need _to figure what happened to this world's version of us. You don't understand yet Naruko...your life...i have a feeling your life was a rarity in the multiverse. That it was something that only happened once in a thousand, no a billion, times. I don't think its something we're going to come across a lot."

"So what are we going to do..." She stopped speaking when she sensed Gara approaching.

Naruto turned his head and looked. It was Gara, and next to him someone Naruto wished to see dearly. Jiraiya looked old. The years hadn't been too kind to him, his face was starting to wrinkle, his white hair looked brittle, and some of it had turned a thin translucent silver. His eyes looked haunted, and tired. As if he hadn't slept in years, and considering whatever this world's version of him had done, he likely had not had a good night's sleep in years.

"Jiraiya."

The man stopped. His tired eyes looking at the two redheads that sat before him. He didn't say a word. His eyes roving over both of them. Inside his mind Jiraiya was in turmoil. Uzumaki Naruto was a sore subject, and even if this boy wasn't the same boy who'd he had watch die so many years before. The same boy who had looked at him, _just him_ Jiraiya knew, with a smile on his face. It still looked like him. Still sounded like him. Even if his hair was red, and he looked a few years older.

He switched his gaze, he couldn't look at him. The face was too similar. He turned to Naruko instead, and cast his gaze at her. She looked like Kushina, long red hair, and pale skin included.

"Jiraiya..." He sighed. He couldn't ignore the boy. He turned to face him, and an overwhelming feeling of shame washed over him. It made him feel disgusting

"Naruto..."

"Its Arashi." Arashi frowned as he said it. Being known as Naruto seemed years ago, back when he had friends, back when he had a fiancé, back when he was fighting an insane Obito, and a mad Madara. " Look Jiraiya, I don't know how you feel. But I'm not the Uzumaki Naruto you knew. I'm someone different. I may look like him, but I want you to think of me as a different person." Best to clear the air and let everything out at once.

Jiraiya nodded.

"Jiraiya, I want to find out what happened to me. Well this world's version of myself."

"I don't know. I…really don't know. We were supposed to go on a three year training trip. Get you away from Konoha. Put some distance between them and you. Give you time to come to grip with what had happened." Jiraiya got silent. "We were gone for about a year, you had been depressed for most of that, you didn't sleep, although you pretended too. But in the nights i'd sit up and listen to your breathing. When you did sleep, you woke sporadically in tears, babbling and screaming about visions. About half-way into the trip you disappeared. We were in moon country, I had thought the sun, and the beaches would help you. We were there for a week, then you disappeared. I went to go talk to an informant, and when I came back…you were gone."

Arashi was quite.

"Halfway through the trip you disappeared. I wouldn't see you again personally for another two years. And that was when you were in chains. I visited you in prison, I tried to get you to talk. Tell me what had happened, you wouldn't. But you seemed…happy. Like you'd come to some realization, that you had reached some conclusion, some end. I guess you did."

Jiraiya took a long breath as he finished speaking.

"I guess...I guess I'm headed to moon country."

xxx-xxx-xxx

**A short chapter. A really short chapter. About 1.5k words less than I would normally put out, but I think it's been long enough since I last updated. Anyways the reason for this update being so short is simple, I've started my last year. Yup, senior year woot! Anyways I've got five ap(advanced placement-college courses-) classes to take this year in order to graduate from my high school. What this means is that mentally I'm dead for most of the weak, and the times am not dead, I don't want to do anything that even resembles scholastic work. This was half written three weeks ago, before my school started up again, it took me three weeks to write the last half, and reading through it looks kind of like crap. I just don't feel like writing, and don't think I will have a chance to pick it up again for a while. So before I just drop this for a couple months as things start to ramp up for me, I'll release this short, short chapter. I'm sorry, I wish I could release a longer one, but considering I have two tests this week, a quiz, a project, and an essay…yeah….i don't think ill be able to work this constantly. **

**Anyways. I'm sorry, I guess this story is going on Hiatus for at least the next month…I'm sorry guys, damn.**

**Normally id talk about the chapter here...but fuck that. Im tired. My brain is fatigued. Ima go get something to eat, then play something that doesnt require brian power. **


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